House of the SettingSun 7: Love is a 4 letter word
by BattleKitten
Summary: Faith’s finally arrived home, so now the fun begins, right? Craig finally fulfilling his duty is probably going to help with that, but he’s not so pleased when it backfires on him
1. Teaser

Disclaimer: All characters previously seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel are the property of Joss Whedon and his associates. All characters never seen anywhere else are mine. I make absolutely no money from this hobby.

Rating: Mature (for sexual situations and occasional strong language).

Pairings: Buffy/Faith, Willow/Kennedy (and for this episode about a dozen others to boot).

Summary: Faith's finally arrived _home_, so now the fun begins, right? Craig finally fulfilling his duty is probably going to help with that, but he's not so pleased when it backfires on him.

* * *

Love is a 4 letter word

_Teaser_

Soft sunlight filtered through the leaves, gradually drying out the woods around Sunset Camp. Although this early in the morning, barely past six, it hadn't managed to do much about the sogginess of the ground beneath the trees.

Craig tried to ignore the moisture seeping into the seat of his khaki shorts, concentrating on his task.

This deep in the trees there were no sounds but those of the early birds heralding a new day and a gentle breeze rustling the leaves above the English boy's head. He kept his voice to a murmur to stay in harmony with the pleasant serenity.

Not that the serenity was going to last much longer.

In front of him sat the ingredients he needed to accomplish his goal. Pinches of herbs and powders taken from various jars in Ms Rosenburg's Magick Room along with the two bluebird feathers, a Styrofoam container full of pork dripping, a box of long stove matches and an empty mug claiming to belong to the 'World's Best Carpenter'. He'd found it at the back of the cupboard with half the handle missing so presumably it wouldn't be missed.

"_Dark Lord I beseech thee."_

Careful not to spill any outside the mug, Craig poured in first the powder and then the herbs.

"_Allow my prayer to release the urges of thine enemies." _

The pork dripping dribbled into the mug next and Craig pulled an oversized match from the yellow box and used the stick to stir the mixture until it became as thick as treacle.

"_By your power let their will be weakened and their weaknesses empowered."_

The potion in the bottom of the mug thickened enough that it was possible for Craig to stand the match upright. He paused long enough to make sure it was going to stay there and then with a little nod of satisfaction he pulled another match free and struck it against the side of the box.

"_Let my words draw your wrath and understanding."_

Completely calm, Craig lit the upright match. It caught immediately and the flame slowly started to burn down the wood towards the mixture in the bottom.

"_So that your faithful servant may be avenged."_

In seconds the grease and herbs and powders were burning furiously, Craig could feel the heat of it on his face as he picked up the Bluebird feathers. He held them, one in each hand, over the mug-fire and waved an intricate pattern through the shimmering haze.

"_Hear me, Janus – creator of disorder, master of pandemonium, lord of chaos!"_

The feathers glowed a brilliant blue before bursting into flames of the exact same colour.

Craig stared at them in awe for a split-second, hardly able to believe it had worked as promised, and then the burning caught up with him and he dropped the feathers into the mug with a shout of pain; waving his singed fingers in the air in a very simple pattern as he tried to lessen the sting.

"Bloody hell."

By the time he thought to look the mug was a bubbling mass of fat and ceramic.

As Craig watched, it liquefied, becoming an electric blue colour and then began to spit at him. Well, not actually at him, but all around, he just happened to be sat right next to it as it sizzled on the damp ground like water on a hot-plate.

Scrambling back to avoid the stinging blobs, he waited until it was all evaporated, or something, gone anyway, leaving just a blue haze that quickly dissipated on the breeze.

"Right then," he said, getting to his feet with a proud grin on his face, still feeling a little surprised that he'd pulled it off without blowing up half of Boudenver or turning himself into a radish.

"Time to go catch a plane," he added to himself and sauntered out of the clearing; happy in the knowledge that he'd done what he came to do.

* * *

Xander was staring into the mirror in his bedroom, pulling down his blood shot eyes and wondering if it was time to invest in some anti-aging wrinkle-reducing bag-eradicating death-warmed-over-relieving kind of crème or something.

They made them for guys now, didn't they? And it wasn't like anyone had to _know_ he was turning into a girly-man if he kept the stuff locked away in his workshop.

'_Gotta build a workshop!'_ he thought. _'All men need a workshop. Somewhere to hide out from the chicks, look at porn and… apply Oil of Olay to tired skin.'_

How about facemasks? They'd be pretty easy, right? He'd seen Anya lathering them on about once a week when they'd lived together. He'd never bothered to watch the removal process though. Her smearing that definitely-not-avocado tasting (no matter what the box says) gunk on her face had been his cue to go watch the sports. Any sports, as long as it got him out of applying clear nail polish to her toenails.

What the hell was the point of clear nail polish anyway?

"Andy, do you think I'm starting to look old?" he asked the younger man sitting on his own bed on the other side of the room. "Be honest."

"No Xander, you don't look old, you just look a little…" Andrew hesitated, pulling at the loose red material covering his thighs. He was still in his spidey pyjamas. One of the cadet's had beaten him to the bathroom.

"Go on," Xander pushed him, not turning away from the mirror as he used a hand towel to dry his hair.

"Battle-worn?" Andrew hazarded. "Weighed down by the weight of the heroic burden that was placed on your shoulders at such a tender age…" He became aware that Xander had turned from the mirror to give him a death-glare. "Or maybe you just need a vacation."

Xander's frown fading, he threw the wet towel onto his bed and turned back to the mirror.

"Maybe you're right, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. There's still the shower block to finish, _'my workshop to build', _the dead-fall from the back track still needs clearing and now, thanks to the fire yesterday, I have a whole bedroom to repair and refurbish quick on the double, yes sir!" he saluted his reflection and then frowned again.

Some mornings he could swear it was his old man staring back at him and that was a truly, truly scary thought.

Andrew winced in sympathy. "Well maybe not a vacation then, just a change from the usual. Do something different to refresh and revitalise you for the repairing and refurbishing."

Andrew left his bed to go pick some clothes out of the wardrobe they shared. He wanted to look good which meant most of his clothes weren't suitable. He mildly cursed whichever cadet was in the shower right now. There was less than an hour before Peter, Rajiv, Anthony and Craig left for the airport and wanted to be there to see them off.

"Like what?" Xander asked, tightening the white fluffy towel around his waist before joining Andrew. He looked over the other man's shoulder for a plain t-shirt and his tan work pants. "We're not exactly living in metropolitan bliss out here. Barnies is as exciting as it gets and I go there nearly every night as it is. It's not like there's a lot of variety around to add spice to my life."

"Well it doesn't necessarily have to be a going out change, do something different around here that you haven't done before," Andrew suggested, turning in the space between the closet doors so he could look at Xander with that earnest eager puppy expression.

"Like what?" One side of Xander's mouth curled up as he asked, looking at Andrew now instead of the clothes hanging neatly behind him.

"Um?" Andrew seemed to have gone blank and Xander could practically hear his brain racing to try and come up with something else to say.

Xander saved him the bother.

Leaning forward to kiss the blonde gently on the lips, Xander's hands instantly went to Andrew's skinny hips, holding him steady as his mouth became more demanding. Andrew was perfectly pliable, his mouth opening to Xander without delay.

Hesitant at first, it wasn't long before Andrew was actively kissing back, pressing closer, his hands dampened by the shower-droplets still sliding down Xander's back and then his chest too as he bumped against Xander.

Xander's hard calloused fingers dug into the bare skin just above the loose waist band of his pyjamas. His thumbs rubbed circles into the dip of Andrew's hips drawing a moan from Andrew, who smooshed himself even closer. The towel tucked around Xander's waist began to tug free, slipping down and away, baring his ass until it was only still covering him where he was pressed against Andrew.

Suddenly, still kissing, Xander raised an eyebrow. Something was stirring beneath the Spiderman pants.

He grunted at it, trying to ignore it as he ran his hands up Andrew's arms to his shoulders, up his neck to his face, pulling him closer, dipping his tongue in deeper to Andrew's hot mouth.

It had been so long since he'd had this kind of closeness, this kind of intimacy.

This kind of… _stubble burn? _

He ran his palm over Andrew's cheek, rubbing it thoughtfully, causing Andrew to take more initiative with the kissing as his hand's slid into either side of Xander's wet hair; lightly tugging on his patch elastic.

Xander's other eyebrow shot up to join its pal. Something _big_ was stirring in the Spidey pants.

"Gah!" He pulled away fast, staring at Andrew in shock.

Andrew looked equally as shocked, and a little scared and very turned on.

Xander couldn't help his eyes from falling to the Spiderman tent the younger man was sporting. "Gah!" he repeated, his eyes going even wider.

The towel that had been caught between them while they kissed stayed where it was even though Xander had moved backwards. He looked down at it, so did Andrew. It was hooked over…

"Holy…gah!" Xander winced and the towel finally started to slide away.

Xander grabbed the towel, covering himself back up. Andrew grabbed a hanger out of the closet behind him and held it at his waist, letting Xander's plain blue t-shirt cover the projection of his pants. He was trembling slightly.

"Okay, what in the seven **hells** just happened here?" Xander demanded, wild-eyed.


	2. Act 1

_Act one_

Buffy lay on her side, unmoving apart from the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

Anyone peeking through her bedroom door and seeing her from behind would think she was asleep, well they'd probably think a lot more than that seeing as she was naked and not alone in the double bed, but first they'd think she was asleep.

She wasn't.

Someone peeking through her bedroom window and seeing her from the front would see that her eyes were open and filled with a wonder they wouldn't understand. They'd also see a lot more than that, what with the being naked thing.

So hopefully no one was taking a stroll on the veranda this beautiful October morning. She'd cleaned the windows within an inch of their fragile lives only the week before anyway so there wasn't really any reason why she should bother to move and pull the comforter – discarded hours before – over herself.

Besides it would obstruct her view.

Bathed in the warm morning sunshine and completely oblivious to the attention; Faith slept on.

On her back with one arm flung above her head, almost hugging the downy pillow to her scalp; her other arm was draped across her stomach as if protecting that most vulnerable area. Buffy couldn't see the scar she knew marred the otherwise unblemished flesh of Faith's upper-body, but she'd caught glimpses of that thin, silvery line last night. Right now it was hidden beneath Faith's elbow, but Buffy had a feeling it was something, along with a million other things, that would have to be dug into and dealt with if they were stand a chance.

For the time being though, it was out of sight and Buffy was pleased, she didn't want to see it, didn't want to remember when she had caused it or what had lead her to that point. Didn't want to think about what it said about her, of what she was capable of.

Better just to look at everything else really.

Buffy smiled against her pillow.

Faith was making the most adorable little soft snorey noises. Her full, slightly parted, lips looked as red as ever even with no lipstick painted onto them, thanks to Buffy's relentless kissing the night before. Faith wore no make-up whatsoever in fact, but her face had taken a light tan which Buffy was pretty sure she couldn't have gotten in prison. Probably not big on the tanning salons in there.

Faith's hair had been a wilder mane than Buffy had ever seen before and that was before they'd started with the sexathon, now it was spread across her pillow, half-pinned down by her own arm and looking like the halo of some ancient brown sun-goddess.

Buffy propped her head up, resting it on her right hand so she could look at Faith properly, taking in her beauty, her quiet strength, her defencelessness…

She pursed her lips as she contemplated for the briefest of moments grabbing the pillow and putting an end to her Faith-shaped problems once and for all. It was tempting. It was very, very tempting, but then she'd be stuck with ghost!Faith-shaped problems and the only real difference to her problems would be the lack of touching ability that most ghosts suffered. Bad difference! She went back to the looking…

… Her perfect nose, her little dimples - barely showing right now but Buffy had seen plenty of evidence of them last night, her nibble-worthy ears and her suckable/lickable/biteable-neck…

Buffy's eyes moved downwards, her breath's deepening as she allowed herself to remember the night before in more detail.

… Her… Buffy licked her lips as she stared down at Faith's ample, creamy-looking breasts. She might have only known them for a short time before, but she'd really missed them. From the way they'd reacted to her touch last night, she was pretty sure they had missed her too.

"Don't worry, we're going to be spending lots of time together soon," she promised Faith's breasts in a whisper, her thumb grazing over one sleepy nipple as softly as her voice had been.

"PasszeballJay," Faith mumbled, her head rolling back on the pillow.

Buffy's eyes widened and she pulled her hand back to rest as casually as she could manage on the bed beside her as Faith mouthed a few more garbled sentences and her eyelids flickered a few times.

By the time Faith was awake, albeit some what still dopey, Buffy's face was an expressionless mask. Gone was the wonder at finally lying next to Faith again, gone was the contentment bought on from their night of … passion, for want of a better defined word … and definitely gone was the reawakening of the desire she'd been feeling seconds before.

This was probably how someone who had gotten a little Botox-happy felt.

Faith blinked a few times but when she was finally focusing on Buffy's face, she gave a slow smile. Obviously she hadn't picked up on the expression yet or maybe she just assumed this wax work of Buffy's detached-face was her normal morning face. After all, she hadn't stuck around long enough to see it the last time.

"Hey," Faith sounded scratchy with sleep, and nervous; wise woman.

"Uh huh."

Faith stretched a little; wincing as it pulled on her hair she lowered her arm to her side. "I'd forgotten how comfortable beds could be," she chuckled, still nervous. "Been sleeping on floors most of the week."

"Yeah well I hope you didn't get to comfortable. I only let you stay last night because Willow and Kennedy have the room I got ready for you." Her voice wasn't as cold as she wanted it to be, she just couldn't manage it, but it must have come through anyway because Faith lifted her head from the pillow to look at her better.

Buffy did not let herself smile at Faith's tremendous state of bed-hair badness, but it was really hard with the bad-ass slayer looking like a poodle after a fight with a washing machine.

Faith took her time thinking over what Buffy had said before finally asking, "Why? Don't they have a room of their own?"

"They did," Buffy nodded. "But I burned it down yesterday."

"Okay," Faith said slowly. "Why'd ya do that?"

"Someone pissed me off," she said shortly, raising an eyebrow at Faith so she didn't miss the connotation.

Faith let that sink in, nodding slightly and clearly unsure of how to respond.

Eventually she smiled again. "You got a room ready for me, B? That's cool of you."

Buffy hardened herself against the happiness in Faith's voice. "I did, but you obviously didn't want it so it's gone to a better home."

She sat up, quickly, very aware she was naked and feeling a little self-conscious now that Faith was getting to stare at her... areas… in the cold, well warm actually, light of day. She'd put on a few pounds since Sunnydale what with her lackadaisical slaying routine and she wasn't as… groomed as she'd planned on being for her first night with Faith.

And why the hell was Faith getting a good gawk at the 'chocolate chips' right now anyway? She was a long way off from earning that privilege back!

Buffy plucked her nightie from the floor beside the bed and pulled it over her head in one swift move. It felt funny. Looking down she saw the reason, three of the little buttons were missing, baring more of her chest than normal. Great! She slid off the bed to her feet.

"So where do I sleep tonight?" Faith was starting to sound a little frustrated now.

Buffy shrugged, "I don't know. Cici and Miranda are back today so there probably won't be any room in with the girls. You can always try the boy's dorm."

Faith was sitting upright now and staring at her. "What about last night?"

"It was fun," Buffy understated, allowing the slightest smile to grace her features. "I have to take a shower; I got a lot of stuff to do today."

She went to her closet and grabbed a pair of grey running shorts and a white tank so she wouldn't have to return to the room.

"You're just going to leave me here?" Faith sounded close to pitiful.

Buffy turned in the doorway to her adjacent bathroom. "You'll be fine; I mean you managed without me for the whole week, right?"

"But…" Faith's voice was cut off when Buffy left the room and pulled the door firmly closed behind her.

In the bathroom, Buffy leant against the white tiled wall for a minute, breathing heavy. A big grin finally broke through her grave expression and once there it only seemed to get bigger.

Feeling lighter (despite the few extra pounds) than she had in months, she locked both hers and Dawn's doors – this tiny bathroom had no hallway access – and turned on the shower.

* * *

Faith's room was still pretty bare. Buffy had done a good job of turfing out any evidence of the three previous inhabitants: Alison, Miranda and Cici, but obviously hadn't known how to make it seem like home to Faith.

At least, not exactly.

Willow studied one particularly disturbing poster tacked to the wall depicting a red devily kind of figure, with black boots and a big sword, leaning on a pentagram made of swords, inside of which was scrawled the word "SLAYER". Above the picture were the words: "SHOW NO MERCY".

"Is that the new Council recruitment poster?" Willow's brow furrowed as she stared at it. "'Cause I didn't realise we were going with such a … direct approach."

Kennedy was eyeing another poster on the other side of the room. "If it is, I hate to think what Giles is thinking he's going to recruit with this one."

Willow turned to take another look at it. A little white haired boy was holding a headless teddy-bear. Behind him a horse-headed nightmare was gripping the severed head while his gruesome rabbit-headed friend prepared to place a crown on the pale boy.

"Okay, capital E Eww," she decided. "I hope Faith is feeling fully rehabilitated, or else five minutes in here is going to send her back the other way."

"Well if she never turns up we won't have to worry about her pulling the heads of any stuffed toys," Kennedy pointed out.

"Remind me to point that up-side out to Buffy later," Willow smiled at her.

Kennedy didn't return it; in fact she kept her eyes on the wall, checking out some of the other equally as freaky posters.

"So," Willow began, rolling over to face her girlfriend in the bed, but she hesitated before speaking again. "Last night was different."

"How?" Kennedy asked flatly.

"Well, with the you not wanting to, you know, do stuff." She tried a lascivious leer, but it was lost on Kennedy who was looking the other way.

"It's not the first night we haven't had sex Willow," she responded in a bored voice.

"I know," Willow agreed quickly, but then she spoke slower, more carefully, "But it's the first time you haven't seemed to even want to."

"You make it sound like that's all I'm with you for," Kennedy snapped, throwing the bed covers from herself.

Willow stayed silent, her mouth twitched, but she didn't know what to say to the unexpected anger.

I was tired," Kennedy finally continued. "It's been a hell of a forty-eight hours."

"So it's not that you didn't want to?" Willow checked nervously.

"Why are you making a big deal out of this?"

"I'm not," Willow insisted. "It's just you've been acting a little odd since yesterday, and not 'I'm tired' odd, but 'I'm mad at you' odd. I just want to know why?"

Kennedy lay there staring at the ceiling for nearly a minute in silence before she sat up and swung her legs out from beneath the covers. She sat with her back to Willow, staring out of the window at the woods to the north of the camp.

"I thought," she began quietly, "when that bastard of darkness showed up, that I'd lost you. I thought he'd taken you into oblivion like he threatened. It was only for a minute, but… it scared me Willow."

"But I'm still here," Willow sat up in the bed, pushing the covers away from her. "Like I said, I won. Everything's okay now…"

"And then," Kennedy spoke over her. "Almost immediately after, your ex shows up on the doorstep!"

"But that doesn't mean a thing," Willow promised.

Oz showing up unexpectedly had been a surprise that was for sure, but it didn't change what she felt for Kennedy. Not that she really knew what she felt for Kennedy, not in so many words, but she did know that whatever it was, it hadn't altered in the slightest after spending some time with Oz.

"You've been searching for him for ages, Willow. You told me just last month that you'll always be a little bit in love with him and I get that, he was your first, but you can't sit here and tell me that it doesn't mean anything and expect me to believe it."

"But… but it doesn't!" Willow stressed. "And you do have to believe me!"

"I spent an hour with you both last night, just an hour, and I can see how much that's not true. You two are like…" Kennedy trailed off and Willow stared at the back of her head, wincing as she waited to hear what was coming. "It was like you and he are the soulmates and you and I are barely just acquaintances."

"Well on some, not very important levels, maybe…" Willow inched closer to Kennedy on her knees.

"You never said we were together," Kennedy added bluntly, stopping Willow from moving any closer.

"I didn't?" she squeaked.

Kennedy shook her head, her eyes still fixed on some fascinating point outside.

"Well I think it was implied and Oz is pretty intuitive for a guy, I'm sure he knew," Willow tried.

"Yeah, but you didn't say it!"

Willow played with the sheets. She wanted to argue that Kennedy was just being petty, but she knew she wasn't. Okay, she was in a way, but Willow could imagine how she felt which made arguing unfair.

If she'd told Oz she and Kennedy were a couple it would have put any ideas out of his head. Not that he probably had any ideas in the first place. This wasn't like when he came back and she was just beginning things with Tara; it had been years since they'd last seen each other, he probably had a girlfriend of his own by now, or maybe even a wife! Riley had come back married only eighteen months after leaving Buffy.

Kennedy stood up, startling Willow from her thoughts. "I need to speak to Giles about setting up a physical training schedule for Reece and Naomi."

She started pulling on the clothes she'd worn the night before. Most of their clothes were still in the closet in their room and reeked of smoke. Willow was planning on spending most of her day doing laundry.

"Can't Buffy do that?" Willow asked, wanting to keep Kennedy talking until they resolved everything.

"Buffy's going to have enough on her plate with Faith's parole officer coming this morning," Kennedy reminded her.

"Oh shoot," Willow climbed out of bed, reaching for her own clothes. "I should go see her before she has an anxiety attack of the head-exploding kind."

The sound of the door shutting softly was her only answer. Willow looked up to see that Kennedy had already left the room.

"Shoot!" Willow muttered again sitting back down on the edge of the bed with her pants only halfway up her legs.

* * *

"No way!" Dawn dropped the blusher brush she had been gesturing emphatically with and bent down to look for it beneath her stool; cell phone still held to her ear with her other hand. "And then she pretended like nothing had happened?"

Fen's voice came crackly through the earpiece, "_Yep, even when they came out of the cubicle together all rucked up and starry-eyed, she swore they'd just been talking. It was so frakking obvious what they'd been doing, but no one ever mentions it 'cause her father's the… Father."_

"Yeah, well next time she starts preachin' that my family is a bunch of evil, lesbo sinner-types I'm using this info." Dawn located the short fat brush and scooped it up just as she started feeling dizzy from the upsidedown-ness. "Whoa, head rush!" She sat up properly again, blinking away the spots.

"_That's why I told you_," Fen assured her before asking, "_What are you doing there?"_

"Applying make-up," Dawn told her, going back to it.

"_And that's giving you a head rush? Wow, you really do everything to extremes, Sunny D; no wonder your sis won't let you out of her sight,_" Fen chuckled.

"Not true, she's letting me out of her sight today, isn't she?" Dawn defended her independence. "Okay so it's a Monday afternoon and no matter how psycho-protecto Buffy gets even she'd have a hard job stopping me from going out on a Monday afternoon, but, you know, baby steps."

"_Plus, its not like we're going out with any guys,"_ Fen pointed out. Her upbeat tone turned a little grumpy as she continued, "_In fact, this is turning out pretty lame_, _Dawn. Matinee showing, no guys – what's up with that? We're two teenage girls with bodies and minds to die for; how come we haven't got a queue of boys waiting to get their hands slapped in the back of the theatre, huh?"_

"Well," Dawn mused on the subject as she tilted her head back to put on some mascara. "Maybe they're intimidated by our bountiful beauty and brains. Or," she continued, less sure of herself. "Maybe they're just not interested in me. I mean, you always have guys drooling over you, you could have picked five different dates for this afternoon if you wanted. When I'm around, no drooling to be seen!"

"_Or maybe they can just sense that you're not really interested, maybe because you're so totally hung up on someone else that you're blind to all other options?" _Fen's chuckle tickled Dawn's ear again.

Dawn froze with her lipstick halfway to her lips. How did Fen know about Reece? She hadn't mentioned him because she knew her friend would make a big deal out of wanting to meet him and would not so subtly drop hints that Dawn liked him when she did.

"_Sunny D, you still there?"_

"I am not hung up on anyone!" She insisted.

"_No, then how come you can't even look Seth in the eye anymore?" _

"What?" Ew, no, never, how could anyone think she was attracted to that arrogant freakazoid tail-boy! "A thousand times no, and then some more," she shuddered with the intensity of her dislike. "I have **never** wanted to look Sethos in the eye."

"_So you're trying to tell me you __**don't**_ _spend your nights coming up with new ways to thank him for saving you from Mr Roberts_?" Fen was so obviously smirking on the other end of the phone.

"I so do not!" Dawn huffed as she put her make-up away in a drawer and locked it so certain sisters could not come in pretending to collect plates and glasses but really on a mission to steal all of her decent stuff. "Anyway, you're single too, Fen. Who are you hung up on?"

"_Sure as hell nobody at school_," Fen drawled. "_Been there, done them_."

Dawn blinked at that. Did she mean, like, literally?

Fen was still speaking, "_I need someone with a bit more going for them these days than the average McKinley High boy can claim; like a job, a car daddy didn't buy them and a place of their own would be good too. My parents are just total freaks when it comes to guys."_

"They can't be worse than Buffy," Dawn rolled her eyes as she checked her reflection for perfection. "At my last high school, in Sunnydale, she was either warning guys off me or… or coming on to them."

"_Really?_" Fen gave a shocked laugh.

"Uh huh and once you get labelled as the chick with the schizo sister, guys tend to stay far away from you."

"_Yeah well I still say the quickest way to scare off a potential boyfriend is to introduce them to my parents. Whenever I take someone home, they make us sit in the parlour with them and drink lemonade while we have chitchat!_" Fen pronounced the last sentence in a hoity-toity accent so different to her usual drawl that it caused Dawn to giggle. "_In eighth grade I took Graham Winston home for tea and my mom wouldn't let him leave the welcome mat until she'd fetched him a comb for his hair!_"

Dawn thought about the scruffy, long haired, heavy metal fanatic in question and giggled some more. "How'd he look?"

"_A lot better actually_," Fen sighed, "_But that's hardly the frakking point_."

"True," Dawn agreed as she left her mirror and set about filling her purse with all she'd need for her afternoon out.

"_Hey, going back to our datelessness this afternoon, do you think you're brother would want to come with us?_" Fen asked, sounding excited by the prospect.

"Xander?" Dawn rolled her eyes. "You know he's not my real brother."

"_Yeah, so what, do you think he'll come?_"

"I doubt it." Dawn paused while an idea came to her. "Andrew might though," she offered. "And he's older, well, older than us, and he has a job, well, sort of."

"_Cool, that's me set_." Dawn smirked at Fen's enthusiasm and wondered if it would last once she'd met him. "_Any other hotties hiding away at that camp of yours that might wanna join us?_"

Dawn thought about Reece, and then she thought about asking Reece if he wanted to go to the cinema with her. She blushed hard, feeling her tummy go all butterfly cave on her.

"Um, maybe," Dawn began as her bathroom door opened. "Hang on."

She looked up with a frown as Buffy entered stealthily, looking around half of the room before sliding her body completely through the doorway.

"And here comes the Greater Spotted Make-up Stealer," Dawn intoned in her best David Attenborough voice causing Buffy to jump and look her way sharply. "As is common with this breed, you can see she is attempting to take the make-up from another's nest, instead of buying her own."

"What?" Buffy looked at her perplexed and a little worried. Dawn could hear Fen laughing on the other end of the line, but she kept her suspicious eyes on her sister. "I have a spot?" Was Buffy's next, seemingly frantic; concern and she went to the mirror to look for it.

"Uh no," Dawn told her as Buffy turned her face this way and that, checking for blemishes.

Today was the day Faith's parole officer was showing up, and was going to find no Faith in residence. Obviously Buffy had become unhinged as a result.

She looked at Buffy for a moment longer before sighing into the phone, "Fen, I have to go. My sister's taken a turn for the worst. I'll see you at noon?"

"_Sure thing, Sunny D, don't forget to ask your friend if he wants to come." _Fen hung up.

Dawn pressed the cancel button on her cell phone and chucked it into her bag. "Buffy, you have no spot. Why are you in here? You have your own door you know, looks just like this one, except it's on the other side and leads to _your_ room."

Buffy muttered something to herself about zits and sod's law, always a bad sign when she started using Spike's favourite phrases, and finally satisfied herself her face hadn't erupted into a mass of pus-y boils in the space between the bathroom mirror and Dawn's mirror.

"Uh, yeah, I couldn't go through it," Buffy offered vaguely. "It's… sticking, yeah, very sticky, probably the rain…" They both looked out of the window at the beautifully sunny day. "…last night," Buffy finished.

"Uh huh," Dawn was still sceptical; Buffy's door had never stuck before to her knowledge.

"I'll leave you to it," Buffy started for the main door, stopping just on the threshold to look back, adding, "Oh and Dawn, next time you wanna make fun of me to your little friend's, just remember who gave you the money to buy all the make-up in the first place."

"You mean Giles?" Dawn countered, crossing her arms as she glared at Buffy in the doorway. "The guy who gives me thirty dollars a week for research assistance?"

"Uh, yeah, him." Buffy looked surprised. "Just… don't forget. It wouldn't hurt to show a little appreciation is all I'm saying." She disappeared.

"Oh yeah, this is gonna be a fun day," Dawn muttered to herself as she tried to decide what would be the best outfit to wear for asking Reece out on a date.

It took a few minutes to decide whether she should go for smart or slutty. After all he was a Watcher-trainee, maybe he preferred his women in tweed as opposed to spandex. Not that she owned any tweed or spandex.

Deciding on a compromise she picked her tightest, butt-hugging blue jeans and a formal looking white shirt with faint blue pin-stripes and went into the bathroom to change.

* * *

Buffy walked into the kitchen to see Kennedy standing at the counter making coffee.

"Hey." She greeted the other slayer brightly; a smile on her face and a bounce in her step.

Kennedy half-turned and put her finger to her lips, motioning to the corner as she grabbed another mug from the cupboard and poured Buffy some coffee.

Coming further into the room, Buffy could see that Giles was on the phone. Taking the coffee Kennedy handed to her; she smiled thanks and sat down at the table.

"Who's he talking to?" she asked in a lower voice.

"Not sure, but someone from England. He keeps using all these colloquial phrases that I've never heard of; and I thought I had a pretty good handle on Briticisms after spending time with Annabelle and Molly." Her mouth turned up briefly at the corners, but her eyes were sad.

Buffy didn't know if it was because she was remembering the two fallen potentials from Sunnydale or something that went deeper than their loss, but something clearly wasn't right with the normally brash girl.

"So, you all set for today?" Kennedy said, breaking Buffy out of her thoughts.

"What? Uh, yeah, I guess."

Kennedy sat down opposite her, "Do you know what you're going to say to the P.O. yet?"

"The parole officer?" Buffy checked. "Absolutely nothing. S'not exactly my problem, is it? I mean, Faith knows what's at stake; if she can't deal with it then that's her problem."

"What?" Kennedy looked surprised. "But aren't you at least gonna do some damage control?"

"If I start doing 'damage control' for Faith now, Ken, I'll never stop. It would be a full time occupation," Buffy chuckled.

"Well I don't blame you for finally giving up on her," Kennedy admitted, looking up as Giles finished his call. "It's not like she's done a lot to sway any of us the other way."

"Oh I don't know Kennedy, I wouldn't write her off too soon, Faith might surprise you yet." Buffy grinned behind her coffee cup.


	3. Act 1:2

Again thank you for all the reviews. They keep me chipper.

* * *

Faith lay on her back in Buffy's bed, her hands laced and resting on her bare stomach while she waited for the blonde to come back.

She had been waiting a long time already.

She wasn't surprised Buffy was acting like a total bitch this morning, in fact she was more surprised about the hot welcome she'd received the night before, but would it have killed the other Slayer to at least take a minute to show her around?

Faith pushed herself up so she was sitting against the pillows. That was when she noticed there were _three_ doors leading out of the room.

Great! Did they come with a riddle?

She couldn't remember which door Buffy had gone through either or what might be waiting on the other side of it. Maybe this was part of their master plan to stop her from running off again, confuse her so much she never managed to leave this bedroom in the first place.

Sick of feeling like a chump for needing Buffy to hold her hand and just sick of waiting in general, Faith slid off the bed.

"Okay, I choose door number one, Monty."

She padded over to the nearest white painted wooden door, her eyes falling to her clothes scattered across the floor on the way. She did a double-take at the cactus on a shelf, partly because the spiky plant was missing the top third of itself and partly because her bra was hanging off of it in a jaunty manner.

Faith smiled as she remembered the enthusiasm Buffy had shown when undressing her the night before, but didn't take any more notice of her clothes. They'd been on her a week. Even with the scrubbing she'd given them the day before, they were not touching her skin again.

She pulled open her chosen door, half-expecting it to be a closet. When faced with a choice of three doors, the first one opened was always a closet, or a supplies room or some other completely useless little room that didn't help at all. Not that a closet wouldn't be useful right now, closets held clothes after all and even B's clothes would be better than exploring this house bare-ass.

As it turned out the law of probability was not on Faith's side.

* * *

Dawn was in the bathroom humming lightly to herself, a tune she couldn't remember the name of but that had been stuck in her head all morning, as she lifted one foot to step into a pair of cotton panties.

The hum died in her throat as the door to Buffy's room was pulled open. She knew it hadn't been stuck! Buffy had just been snooping; she'd probably heard her on the phone with Fen, and had thought she might catch Dawn out, planning something she shouldn't be.

It wasn't until after this thought, that she wondered just who the heck was opening Buffy's door when the blonde herself was downstairs now.

The door swung open wider.

Faith!

Dawn screamed in surprise at the missing Slayer standing in the doorway and fell flat on her face on the linoleum floor, tripped by her own panties.

"Hey Dawn! Got anything I can wear..?" The words didn't register, only who was saying them.

"What… what are you doing here?" she looked up a little fearfully from the awkward position she'd fallen in. "And where are your clothes?"

She flinched backwards as Faith walked into the room with her, not seeming bothered by her own nudity, but vaguely interested in Dawn's.

"In there," Faith pitched a thumb behind her to Buffy's room. "Damn, Dawnie, you really are all growed up, huh?"

"Why did you take your clothes off?" Dawn scrambled to her feet, covering herself as best she could with her hands as she backed towards her own open door.

Faith shrugged, clearly enjoying the younger girl's embarrassment. Dawn felt Faith's eyes travel up and down her body and it made her blush in a way she couldn't explain, it was more than mere humiliation, although it was that too.

"You know, maybe if your sister doesn't drop the bitch act ASAP, I'll take you for a spin; you know, if you're up for it?"

"Get out!" Dawn squealed, her face burning.

She had backed into her room, but Faith had followed her and was now standing in the centre of her room, looking around as casually as she pleased and still very naked!

"Get out!" She said again, louder this time.

Faith gave her a quick leer, "That's a no then I take it."

"GET OUT!" Dawn screamed the words this time, also grabbing the first thing that came to hand and throwing it at Faith.

Faith flinched as the wire coat hanger rebounded off of her bare chest. "Okay, jeez, I'm outta here!" She pulled Dawn's bedroom door wide and stomped out of it, muttering, "Some people don't how to take a fricken compliment."

Dawn reached out and slammed the door shut, nearly hyperventilating.

Willow ran in to the room from the direction of the bathroom, obviously having taken a short cut through Buffy's room. "What is it? I heard screaming. Is everyone okay?"

Dawn spun away from the latest intrusion. "Will you people learn to **knock?**"

* * *

More shaken than she wanted to admit by her unexpected run in with B's sister - man could that chick scream loud - Faith moved quickly down the corridor away from her room.

She could hear conversation floating up from downstairs; maybe Buffy had called a meeting about her arrival. Any second Giles might come up looking for her, ready to rip her a new one for going AWOL on him.

Clothes would be good before that happened, it would be hard to look repentant like this.

Suddenly Willow's raised voice could be heard demanding answers from Dawn. Crap, Dawn acting all hysterical and telling tales of a nude Faith running around wasn't going to help her any.

She put her hand on the nearest doorknob, ready to slip in and hide at the same time as she looked for something to cover up with. She only just cracked the door when she realised an argument was going on inside.

Pausing, she looked over her shoulder for a better option and couldn't help but overhear enough to make her smile.

"Will you **stop **saying that?" Xander was stressing from the other side of the door. "For the last time: **you **kissed **me!"**

"No I didn't, you kissed me."

Faith raised an eyebrow and her smile turned a little devilish as she realised who was in the room with Xander.

Interesting.

"And why would I do that, Andy?" Xander sounded like he was trying to be rational whilst hanging on to reality by his fingernails. Boy didn't sound good. "I'm not remotely gay, admittedly there have been times when I almost wished I was, but I'm not, whereas you on the other hand are harbouring a not-so-secret crush on Giles' God-son."

Faith's eyebrow rose again – Giles had a God-son, and he was here? Wow, there was just so much to she needed to catch up on. Buffy hadn't told her jack the night before; in fact apart from a bunch of sweet nothing and a tonne of dirty nothings on top of that, they'd barely spoken at all.

"No I don't," Andrew was answering. "Craig's just a friend."

"Andrew its okay, liking Craig is fine, you can mack on him or any other guy as much as you want. Any other guy who's not me, that is," Xander said. "Kissing me is not okay."

"I. Did. Not. Kiss. You!" Andrew shouted. Faith pulled her ear from door in surprise. "I told you, it wasn't me. I didn't kiss you, I wasn't thinking about kissing you, I haven't thought about kissing you in …"

As Andrew stammered to a stop before he could say too much, Faith had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"I haven't thought about kissing you ever," Andrew continued, obviously lying. "You did the kissing, and you were the one rubbing…"

"There was no rubbing! No! I never…" Xander sounded close to meltdown now.

"…my face!" Andrew continued, sounding pretty crazed himself.

There was silence for a few moments before Xander spoke again.

"Okay… okay, for the sake of ending this merry-go-round let's just agree that we… kissed each other." Faith could hear the pain it caused him to admit that. "Then maybe we can get to the bottom of the why we did that?"

"Well why did we?" Andrew whined.

"Beats the hell out of me," Xander replied.

"Maybe we should tell the others, maybe one of them will know." There were footsteps towards the door making Faith lean away from it, but then the sounds of someone being tackled.

"Tell people, are you insane?"

"Why not?"

"Because then they'd know, dimwit!"

"So, why do you care? Unless of course it's because you **are** secretly attracted to me and you're worried that if we tell them it won't be so secret anymore," Andrew finished triumphantly.

"Fine!"

Faith jumped back when the door was suddenly yanked open revealing a fuming, towel-clad Xander, making him better dressed than her right now, and Andrew in a pair of red pyjama pants.

"Holy shit!" Xander jumped back himself on seeing her standing there. His eyes grew even wider as he took in what she wasn't wearing. "Plimbluh."

"What?" Faith asked, her forehead creasing in confusion.

"I said," Xander continued in a slightly calmer voice. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Really?" Faith kept a straight face with difficulty. "'Cause it sounded more like the noise you make right before you…"

"Faith, you have three seconds to cut the crap before I…"

"What?" she asked.

"…call Buffy to come and kick your ass," he finished cockily.

Faith rolled her eyes. "You know, I'm really not feeling particularly welcome in my new home so far."

"I wonder why," Xander said through gritted teeth.

Movement down the hall made Faith whip her head that way, just in time to see Willow raise her hand in a threatening manner. Faith was already diving out of the way by the time the witch threw the spell at her with a command of "Encase!"

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Faith yelled as she came upright again near the end of the narrow hallway.

"I don't know what your naked, nefarious plan is Faith, but this will go a lot easier on you if you just come along quietly," Willow said calmly, raising her hand again. "I don't want to have to do this."

"Then don't," Faith offered a solution, backing away from the crazy Scoobies. "Just put your hand down and find me some clean…"

Faith suddenly found herself rushed from a doorway, she barely had time to see what was attacking her before the blanket was thrown over her head and the weight of either Andrew or Xander banged against her hard enough to knock her off her feet.

She pitched over backwards, the blanket blinding her and restricting her arms. She didn't even know what the hell was going on, let alone able to do anything about it, when she started sliding down some stairs.

Her back smacked into cool polished wood at the bottom, but it caused less trauma to her spine than each jarring step she'd hit on the way down.

Okay, enough was a fricken 'nough. Had they all gone crazy since they left Sunnydale: throwing magick at her, pushing her down stairs? Were they trying to make her snap and screw up before she'd even unpacked her bag? …Oh right, she'd lost her bag, well bring it on then.

Sitting up, Faith ripped the blanket from her head and stared wildly around what turned out to be a kitchen. She flinched a little when she realised there were a lot of people staring down at her. One of them was Buffy, her lips were in a tight smirk, her arms crossed, her head tilted slightly to one side as she enjoyed every second of Faith's grand entrance.

"Damn, you were right, Buffy." Faith's eyes found Kennedy as she heard her voice. The younger Slayer was checking her out in a playfully appreciative way. "Faith **is** full of surprises."

Standing up, the blanket discarded by her bare feet, Faith rounded on the stairs, down which was coming a clattering of noisy feet.

"What the hell is your problem?" She looked between Xander and Willow, Andrew cowered behind them.

"We could ask you the same thing, Faith. What were you doing snooping around up there?" Xander demanded answers.

"Perving on me for one," Dawn had joined them, now fully dressed.

Faith rolled her eyes, "That was an accident."

"So you offering to take me _for a spin_ was just an accident?"

"Maybe joke would be a better word," Faith hazarded, starting to feel a little uncomfortable now. Half the people staring at her were strangers. "Could we lose the nerd herd please?" she waved her hand at the bunch of boys along a counter openly staring at her – some with pleasure and others with shock.

"Uh yes," Giles stood from the table, his glasses in his hand instead of on his face. "Come along boys, we have to leave anyway. Faith." He gave her a tight nod as he passed her but didn't look her way.

She was pretty sure that his reticence had nothing to do with her being in the nude and some of her nerve wilted inside of her as she watched him organising the boys.

"I tried to hold her Buff," Willow was saying. "But she was too quick…"

Faith raised an eyebrow at Buffy, "You were in on all this, B? Is this some kind of hazing thing?"

"…Luckily for us, Xander and Andrew had the bright idea of using the blanket or else she might have gotten away again." Willow continued.

Buffy was still smirking at her. "No, but it's what you get for running around the house buck naked."

Faith had to agree with that, "Yeah well I was looking for your clothes when everything went nuts."

"I never said you could wear my clothes!" Buffy snapped, but Faith was pretty sure at this point it was just to wind her up.

"Well the ones I was wearing are only fit for burning," she pointed out, "and the rest got stolen. What do you expect me to wear?"

"Just hang on a minute," Faith turned her head to Xander's annoyed instruction. "You don't seem too surprised to suddenly have Faith fall naked into our kitchen."

"That's true," Kennedy folded her arms and turned a mildly interrogative stare on their number one slayer.

Faith grinned a little as suddenly Buffy was the centre of attention.

The blonde fidgeted, holding her hands in front of her in a 'butter-wouldn't-melt' kind of way and shooting Faith evil looks that held promises of torture for her future.

"Yeah, Buffy, what's going on?" Willow looked wicked perplexed as she looked between the two slayers. She was probably better at reading Buffy's guilty expression than most of the others in the kitchen.

"Yeah B, what's wrong, didn't you tell them about last night yet?"

"Last night?" Xander repeated. "What happened last night?"

"Uh, Faith showed up," Buffy admitted the obvious.

"And you didn't think to tell us?" Giles asked her.

"It was late," Buffy lied.

"Well did you at least get the full story of where she has been all week?" he asked next, and the look he cast Faith's way made it clear he didn't expect her to tell the truth to anyone except, maybe, Buffy.

"Um…not exactly," she squeaked, looking at her feet.

"Then what were you doing…" Giles realised how stupid that question was as he looked from Buffy's guilty as hell expression to Faith's nakedness and back again. "…Oh for heaven's sake," he finished instead, shaking his head resignedly.

Kennedy let out a low whistle as Willow whispered a soft, "Oh Buffy."

"You and Faith…" Xander looked from her to Buffy and back again a few times, and started again, "Faith and you… after all the crap this past week? You couldn't even wait twenty-four hours before jumping into bed with her? Did you lose your mind? For all we know she's spent all week making connections with undesirable city officials and…"

"Okay boy toy, time for you to shut the hell up," Faith spoke quietly enough, but as she moved to stand directly in front of Xander her stance made it quite clear he was shutting up. "You wanna take your shots at me, go ahead, I couldn't give a shit, but you can lay offa Buffy, 'cause she hasn't done a damn thing wrong to warrant your manly bitchiness."

"Well I don't know, she did you." Xander didn't back down, his one eye steely as it bore into her. The kitchen had gone dead silent as everyone seemed to hold their breath at the same time.

It made her smile. She wanted to turn and see what expression Buffy had right now. Faith was surprised she'd stayed quiet this long, but she knew that by looking away she'd lose some of her power over the situation. Not that she seemed to have a lot to begin with.

"What's you're problem, Xander? You think you're the only one allowed to get his jollies with someone a little bit bad; B's not allowed to join in the fun too?"

"What?" Xander gave her a less than amused look. "If that's an oblique reference to Anya, for one you can leave her out of it, and for two you can go f…"

"Actually," Faith cut him off, smirking. "I was talking about Andrew. Weren't you two going at it like gay bunnies this morning?"

Xander opened his mouth; no words came out so he pointed his finger instead. Faith smiled innocently at him, shrugging a little as he continued to struggle for both words and, by the looks of him, air.

"What?" Willow was looking at Xander like he'd grown another head.

"How does **she** know?" Andrew muttered urgently under his breath.

"Okay, somebody needs to hit the back button because I must have missed something on the last page." Buffy was looking between Xander and Andrew. "You two are together now?"

Xander sat down at the kitchen table with a loud heartfelt groan. "No we are not, we just… he kissed me. It was a thing, a…a… fluke."

"Like the clothes fluke?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, maybe, except we weren't wearing any clo…" Xander spotted several grins growing around him and winced. "Let's just say it was a thing!"

"You kissed Xander?"

Faith looked in the direction of the quietly shocked English boy who'd spoken. She'd never seen him before but she'd bet good money he was Giles' God-son based on the way Andrew was now looking at him.

"No, it's not what you think… It was Xander that kissed me," Andrew ignored the glare Xander gave him. "I mean why would I make the first move I've never… even…" He looked around nervously. "Uh, nothing."

"Yeah no worries, I've got a plane to catch." The kid started to head morosely out of the kitchen door.

Giles called him back. "Actually Craig, you haven't. I spoke with your mother this morning and she requested that I keep you here with me for a while. You're to have an extended holiday." Giles smiled warmly.

"What? No, I can't stay here. I have to go home." The kid, Craig, looked wicked panicked for someone just told they were getting a free vacation. "My mum needs me."

"You're mum will be glad of the break," Giles told him sternly. "You're staying, that's final, so you might as well get used to it."

Craig looked like he was gonna cry and his dark eyes kept shifting between Andrew and Willow.

"Sir, I don't mean to interrupt, but if we don't leave now we won't make it to the airport in time." Another of the English boys, a mini-Wes more of less, reminded the Watcher.

"As yes, shall we make our way to the minibus then," Giles started shepherding some of the kids out of the kitchen.

Giles laid his hand for a brief moment on Craig's shoulder as he passed but the kid shrugged him off. Faith couldn't tell if it was part of the boy's hissy fit or if he was just embarrassed or unused to the gesture, his reaction wasn't easy to read. She didn't like the sadness it brought to Giles eyes though.

"We'll talk when I get back Craig," he promised quietly and left through the back door.

Craig squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, but a word escaped in a burst of emotion, "Pants!" He disappeared in a hurry without saying anything else.

Andrew started to follow him, but a tall blonde chick left a seat at the breakfast counter and held up a hand that paused him.

"I'll go," she told him, when Andrew still looked uncertain she added, "It's okay, he's just throwing a wobbler because he thinks his Mum and Mr Giles are ganging up on him. He'll come around." She left.

"That was Naomi, right?" Faith checked, feeling all the more comfortable now she was only being stared at by people she knew.

"Uh huh."

"Nice." Faith smirked, nodding in admiration as she checked out the ass of her competition.

"We're not all like you," Buffy rolled her eyes. "And what's this I hear about you coming on to my little sister?"

"She barged in on me when I was changing and then, like, wouldn't take 'Get out' as an answer." Dawn piped up eagerly.

"And what were you doing hovering outside my bedroom?" Xander asked as soon as Dawn had finished. "Aside from eavesdropping on a private conversation that is. Just what were you planning up there?"

"I…" Faith started.

Willow over-rode her, "Yeah Faith, I don't want to sound all accusatory, but why did you run away from Giles in Stockton? Where have you been? People have been searching for you all week and then you suddenly show up snooping around the house all…" Willow blushed as her eyes dropped to Faith's body before meeting her face again. "…Oh boy, all sky clad. Why did you run, Faith? Why risk getting yourself in trouble with the police all over again?"

Faith looked down at herself, "Sky clad?"

There was a light tap against the back door; all eyes swivelled that way to see a woman not much older than Buffy standing in the doorway.

Faith noticed her smart suit and neat little briefcase first and wondered if it was someone important maybe she should pick the blanket up to cover herself. After all, did she really want everyone in this crappy town seeing her in all her glory; there was such a thing as leaving a little to the imagination. Admittedly, normally for her that meant leaving her name out, but this was supposed to be a new start, right?

"Hi, sorry to intrude. I'm Ms Devenrowe." She said that like it was supposed to ring a bell for Faith and fixed the slayer with a no-nonsense stare as she stepped further into the room. "And I'd also very much like the answers to those questions if you don't mind."

"Oh crap." Buffy winced.

Faith stared blankly back at the stranger, now totally at a loss as to what was going on.

End of act one


	4. Act 2

Thanks for the reviews (and queries about updates) and sorry for the long delay. I wanted to get act 2 finished before I posted any more and its a long act so it took a while to write. S'done now mostly, so here is the first part. I hope you like it.

* * *

The kitchen was silent apart from the ticking of the wall clock and a barely there buzzing coming from the fridge, until that is, Buffy cleared her throat nervously.

"Mrs Devenrowe the parole officer?" she asked, rooted to the spot while she stared at the woman in horror.

"Ms."

"Sorry," Buffy gave an apologetic edgy smile, before turning to the rest of the room. "Everyone this is…" she trailed off.

No one else was left in the kitchen except for Faith and the buzz of the fridge now sounded like the chirping of crickets.

Wow, she hadn't even heard them go! That was some good escaping from a tricky situation. Why hadn't she thought to do that?

She turned back to the parole officer with another awkward smile. "I'm Buffy Summers."

"Ah, yes, we spoke on the phone on Thursday." They'd spoken on the phone Friday as well, but Buffy had given a different name. Oh, she was in so much trouble now. The woman continued, reaching out to shake Buffy's hand, "You're the girlfriend, is that correct?"

"What?" Buffy choked. "No, just housemates." She shook her head as she cast a side long glance at Faith.

"Yeah, just housemates," Faith echoed, her eyes on Ms Devenrowe as she pulled the blanket tighter around her. "So if I'm in any kind of trouble here, she's nothing to do with it, okay?"

"Yeah so please don't send me to prison for, uh, imposterising," Buffy remembered trying to fake Faith's voice on the Friday.

Faith looked at her now, scornfully, not impressed with Buffy's attempt to wheedle out of trouble when Faith was about to be up to her neck in it.

"What? I'm blonde and little and way to cute to wear orange dungarees day in and day out," Buffy defended herself. "They may have looked good on you, but really, I prefer not to wear your hand-me-downs…" she offered a one-shoulder shrug.

Faith was staring at her out-right, the third person in the room forgotten for a second until she turned back to her and said, "Are you getting a good listen at this? She's my extenuating circumstance, the reason why I may have been a little late in arriving. I mean would you hurry back?"

"Oh that's nice!" Buffy glared at her. "I worked my ass off last week to make things welcoming for you and you just stand there and say the reason you didn't come home is what… I'm annoying?"

"I wasn't implying you were annoying," Faith explained, Buffy started to relax. "I was implying you're a bitch."

"What?" she exploded, taking a threatening step closer to the brunette.

"Well, you have been ever since you woke up this morning anyway," Faith continued. "What's the sitch, B? Your fabulous open-arm welcome run out after forty-eight hours or something?"

"Would you have been back within two days if you thought it did?" Buffy shot back.

"Probably not," Faith shrugged. "Probably wouldn't have come back at all if I'd known you were just going to act like this."

"Act like what? Act like I care that you don't care enough to come home? Act like I'm upset and angry that you didn't **want** to come home? That's not an act, Faith, its called having emotions or have you been secluded from normal, decent human beings for so long that you've forgotten what we _act _like?"

"I'd obviously forgotten how you act most of the time or else I wouldn't be here."

"Then GO!" Buffy pointed to the kitchen door, her arm out straight and defiant in contrast to her slightly trembling bottom lip. "If you don't wanna be here, don't stay, simple as that."

Faith stared back at her, her mouth doing some kind of fish-gape as she couldn't seem to decided what to say.

"Ahem." The polite cough jerked Buffy's eyes from Faith to the stranger still hovering just inside the kitchen door. "Okay so I think we've established so far that you two are certainly nothing more than housemates…" she rolled her eyes "…and I hope this little session of Housemate Therapy has done you both the power of good, but I really must insist we move on to the next part of this meeting…"

Buffy had practically forgotten that the parole officer was in the room; she'd been too focused on Faith. Now she shared a look with the other slayer, concern for what might come next overshadowing everything else for the moment.

Ms Devenrowe had set her briefcase on the kitchen table to leaf through it in ease. "Ah yes," she said after pulling out a thick off-white file folder. "The next thing would be… You **can't** just go and it's **not** that simple."

Faith rolled her eyes, "That part doesn't actually surprise me."

"That doesn't include me too though, does it?" Buffy checked hopefully. "I mean, I can go, right? You're not going to cart me off to the big house too for impersonating a… a… whatever Faith is right now, are you?"

"I thought you wanted us to be together, B." Faith sneered. "Guess you didn't really mean that either."

"I meant it, F! Before you turned into a complete jackass that is, but I don't see why I should go to jail just for trying to save your hide when you're being a complete… jackass!"

"Ladies, please?" Ms Devenrowe stepped into the three foot gap between the two slayers; a brave or stupid woman. "Can we leave the squabbling until a time I'm not here? Faith isn't the only person I have an appointment with today and its going to take me hours to get back to anything deserving of the title: Civilisation."

"Sorry," Buffy murmured, thinking she was just making this worse for herself.

Only this woman knew that she had perjured herself last week; which meant she had two options to redeem herself: Be as nice as pie to the woman and hope that she realised it was simply an indiscretion and not a deep character flaw or… kill her and bury her remains under Willow's magickcal herb garden.

"Sorry," Faith repeated the word a little stronger than Buffy and poked her hand through her blanket, offering it to shake. "It's been a crazy kind of morning. How do you want to do this? Do I get a chance to state my case or do you wanna cuff me right now?"

"Well as I haven't the authority to 'cuff you' myself, or for that matter the handcuffs, let's start with a little conversation." Ms Devenrowe smiled and tapped the giant folder still in her hands. "There's a lot of colourful stuff in here that we have to get through."

"Colourful, that's Faith alright," Buffy smiled brightly at the parole officer. "So would you like to sit down, everyone seems to have made themselves scarce and I don't think they're going to be reappearing in a hurry, so we'll have plenty of privacy." She gestured at the kitchen table, realised it was still covered in breakfast plates and mugs and started quickly clearing it. "And I can make us some tea and someone's left some toast if you're hungry."

"Ms Summers…"

"Miss," Buffy corrected before she remembered she was supposed to be being extra nice. "But Ms is fine."

"Miss Summers," the woman began again either trying to hide amusement or irritation, Buffy wasn't sure which. "I appreciate you're effort to _finally_ get down to business, but I would much prefer to speak with Faith alone, at least at first."

"Oh," Buffy dropped the plate of cold toast back onto the table with a clatter.

Faith grinned at her until she realised that meant she had to face the woman on her own. "Are you sure? I've got nothing to say that can't be said in front of B."

"I'm sure."

"Okay, well why don't you two go to Giles' office." Buffy suggested. "It's got a door so no one will disturb you."

"That sounds fine," Ms Devenrowe picked her briefcase back up and waited for Faith to lead the way.

"And that would be… where exactly?" Faith looked helplessly at Buffy.

"Oh, yeah, just through here." Buffy lead the way into the living room and pointed to a door in the west wall. "In there."

"Thank you," Ms Devenrowe started for the door.

Faith hesitated, "Do you mind if I take a minute to put some clothes on?"

"Of course not," Ms Devenrowe smiled again. "In fact the less distractions the better. I'll wait for you in here."

Buffy waited for her to disappear into the small office before she turned a raised eyebrow Faith's way. "Less distractions? Does that mean what I think it means?"

"That she thinks I'm hot – hot and naked?" Faith asked. "Probably. Hey, maybe I should stick with the blanket and she'll go easier on me."

Buffy frowned, "Upstairs now! Let's find you some clothes."

She ushered the other slayer up the front stairs wishing she owned some ugly outfits or at least something that would make Faith look fat.

* * *

Willow hadn't run far when the parole officer had come-a-knocking. Just as far as her magick room, where she had hovered pretending to tidy stuff while she listened to the Slayers bickering on the other side of the door.

She was feeling guilty for unwittingly dropping Faith in it. Yes she had wanted to put Faith on the spot because hopefully that would have lead to answers, but she hadn't meant to do it front of the one person who could make Faith go directly to jail without passing Go.

She'd half hoped Kennedy would come hide in here with her so that they could talk some more, but she'd bolted in the other direction. Not that she really knew what to say. She'd told Kennedy earlier that Oz being around didn't change how she felt about her, but either Kennedy didn't believe her or her issues went deeper than she was letting on.

It wasn't fair that she was being made to feel guilty about this! She hadn't asked Oz to turn up yesterday and she'd told Kennedy that she was looking for him, well eventually she had. See, she'd been nothing but upfront, and Kennedy was just being a… a brat about the whole thing.

Maybe she should just leave it. Perhaps if she did, then Kennedy would just get over it without this having to turn into a huge deal.

Cringing in the little room, she heard the parole woman request some alone time with Faith and a few moments later heard the kitchen door swing open; she risked opening her own door an inch to peek out.

She just had time to see Buffy standing with Faith and the woman in the living room before the kitchen door swung shut again, but it was enough for her to know she was safe from squabbling slayers and sticky situations.

The kitchen needed clearing up still and Andrew was nowhere in sight so Willow set about the task. If she was going to be spending her day in domestico-land then she might as well start here before heading down to the basement for laundry duty.

She was running hot water into the sink for washing up when Kennedy re-appeared. She'd changed her clothes for some training gear: tiny black shorts and a grey t-shirt. She looked nice.

"Hey," the small slayer greeted her from the bottom of the stairs. "Is it safe to come out?"

Willow shut off the tap and turned around, smiling. "I think so. Faith and the parole officer have gone to Giles' office to talk."

"That was some bad timing, huh?" Kennedy came closer, picking the jar of jelly from the table and putting it on the counter, before resting her hip against one of the high backed chairs.

"Yes and that's all it was," Willow said quickly. "Bad timing. It wasn't like I meant to drop Faith in it."

"I know and Faith will know that too. Don't beat yourself up about it, okay? Besides, Faith's the one who did the stupid thing, she must have realised this might happen."

"What, that I'd open my mouth and talk, and sell her up the river in the process?" Willow asked.

"No, that there might be consequences." Kennedy said softly, taking a step closer to Willow. "This isn't your fault."

"Yeah, but she came back. In time. And I had to go blow it for her." Willow felt awful and it showed in her voice.

It wasn't only about what she had done to Faith; it was about what she had done to Buffy too. She couldn't help thinking that Buffy would probably be better off without the other slayer as her partner, but she hadn't meant to take that away from her. She didn't want to take it away from her, and she certainly didn't have the right. She knew some people thought that maybe Kennedy wasn't her ideal partner either, not that they said it, but she knew. And right now she and Kennedy were getting along brilliantly, or they had been…

Willow half-sobbed in frustration.

"Come here," Kennedy instructed tenderly, opening her arms for a hug.

Willow went into them gratefully, resting her head on the smaller woman's shoulder. In truth though, the hug didn't really make her feel any better about what she'd accidentally done to Faith, but it did ease her troubled mind so far as Kennedy's weirdness was concerned. Obviously, she couldn't be that mad or she wouldn't be handing out the comfort-snuggles now.

"Better?" Kennedy asked after they'd just held each other for a minute in silence.

"Much." Willow hugged her a little tighter, savouring the closeness. Relieved to be forgiven for something she hadn't done in the first place and so had no way to apologise for. "Except you smell like a chimney sweep, or how I imagine a chimney sweep would smell anyway." She pulled away with a smile.

Kennedy smiled back, "Yeah well my usual deodorant exploded in the fire so I had to go with something else." she chuckled a little as she stroked some red hair back behind Willow's ear.

"Didn't you want to wait until I'd washed them?" Willow stroked her fingers lightly across the shoulders of Kennedy's sooty-smelling t-shirt, pinching and pulling the material a little before letting go. "So they'd be less essence of barbequed bedroom and more essence of lavender and rice flower non-bio detergent."

"I don't have the time," Kennedy shrugged. "Giles wants me to start the Watcher's training as soon as he gets back from the airport."

"I could do them right now?" Willow grinned, having a thought. "We could go down to the basement together and throw them in the machine and they'll be done in an hour."

"And what, for the next hour I walk around in my underwear?" Kennedy smiled.

"Well no, I kinda thought you might want to wait down there with me. To keep me company." Willow jiggled her eyebrows.

They hadn't made lovelast night or this morning, and Kennedy was right - it wasn't the first time they'd gone to sleep after nothing more than a kiss goodnight, but this morning Willow was _really_ feeling the lack of it.

Maybe it was because Kennedy didn't seem to want it – for the first time ever as far as Willow knew – that was making her crave a little of the slayer's skilled touch. She leaned in to kiss Kennedy gently on the lips and then leaned back again to gauge her girlfriend's reaction.

"So?" she prodded, doing her best bedroom eyes. "It could be like that Levi's commercial, you know, in the laundrette."

Kennedy shook her head, not understanding.

"The one where the hot guy strips off and everyone watches him," Willow explained, adding when she still got nothing more than a bemused smile, "It's a classic!"

"Since when are you interested in watching hot guys strip?" Kennedy teased. "If I'd known that, our last date would have been a lot cheaper. I could have just bought us some popcorn and made the Watcher kids strip off and swim in the lake for training," she grinned.

"Well, I think it's sweet that you would do that for me," Willow was grinning too. "But I meant I would be watching you… strip off, that is. If you want to?"

Kennedy thought about it and then made a dramatic affair of sniffing a shoulder of her t-shirt. "Well, this does smell pretty smoky. I should probably have it washed before I get smoke inhalation by osmosis."

"Your health should always come first," Willow approved, kissing her again, more confidently this time, but still she pulled away to make sure. "Was that a yes by the way? Because if it wasn't, this is going to seem a little inappropriate." She caught the bottom of Kennedy's tight grey t-shirt in her hands and started to tug it upwards.

"Willow!" Kennedy grabbed her hands, stopping her from pulling the t-shirt any further up. "What's gotten into you?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing's gotten into me," Willow mumbled, releasing Kennedy's shirt. "That's the problem. Besides I thought you wanted to, you were sending out 'I want to' vibes."

Kennedy's arms slid tighter around Willow again as she easily pulled the red-head closer to her for a cuddle. "I do want to," she chuckled. "Hence the vibes. But I was agreeing to laundry-sex, not kitchen table-sex at this time of the morning with a parole officer just a few doors away. That's a little riskier than I like my risky sex."

"You're so boring," Willow teased, before motioning over Kennedy's shoulder to the basement door. "So do you want to go down?"

"For you?" Kennedy's eyes twinkled. "Always."

"Down the stairs, silly," Willow rolled her eyes but she couldn't help the grin that insisted it be on her face.

Kennedy did still like her!

She felt the worry roll from her shoulders as she looked into Kennedy's clear brown eyes and saw the affection she had grown used to over the last few months. The affection that hadn't been there a few hours ago.

"So shall..?" Kennedy was nuzzling her neck as she began to ask something, but she stopped on both counts when a loud rap came at the open back door.

"Is this a bad time?"

"Oz, hey! No of course not, come on in." Willow abruptly pulled out of Kennedy's embrace.

She felt uncomfortable being so snuggily in front of her ex and walked briskly to the door, totally missing the hurt look that flashed across the slayer's face, quickly followed by a more permanent look of unconcealed irritation.

"I thought we were about to go and do something," Kennedy folded her arms, her butt leaning against the edge of the table.

The changing tone of Kennedy's voice, from seductive to standoffish in sixty seconds, made Willow pause in her greeting of Oz.

She looked to Kennedy and then back to Oz, completely embarrassed. "No, no we weren't going to do anything! What would we be going down to the basement to do anyway? There's nothing down there except… oh oh, washing machine! We were going to go wash Kenny's clothes!" Willow licked her lips, unhappy, not liking the way they were both staring at her.

The silence was enough to make her want to dash back into her Magick room; the safe escape from all sticky situations, but right now her lovers, past and present, were looking at her like they were about to pounce in her direction and whoever got the biggest half was going to stick a flag… in her!

Un-nerving, but even more so was the thought of how they might act if they turned those eyes on each other; probably better for her to put up with being the buffer for now.

Of course, she could put an end to this right now, Willow realised. All she had to do was say the words this minute. Say that she was with Kennedy and that was where she was going to stay. If she said that in front of the pair of them they'd both have to accept it.

Kennedy would have to stop acting like a brat and Oz would have to stop… well he hadn't actually done anything except say 'Hey' so far.

That was a good point. Willow glanced Kennedy's way to see the young slayer glaring openly at Oz

Oz hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't done anything wrong. Kennedy was the only one being difficult.

Willow knew then that she wasn't going to say the words, not right now at least. She wasn't going to reward Kennedy's unnecessary pique of jealousy or whatever it was with a declaration of undying love…

Not that it was love and certainly not 'undying' because that didn't even exist… Willow shook her head, that wasn't the important part.

She'd known Oz for a long time and she wanted to catch up with him while she had the chance; that's all this was. If Kennedy couldn't believe that, couldn't take Willow's word for it, then maybe it was good that this was something she'd found out now.

"Well I don't want to interrupt laundry day," Oz finally broke the silence. "But you said to come by and pick up the information on Eric."

"Oh shoot," Willow had forgotten all about that. "I haven't got any of it together yet, and I can't get in Giles' office right now." She remembered.

She looked at the kitchen wall, to approximately where Faith would be sat right now, two brick and wood walls away. What was going on inside that office? She wished she felt comfortable invading, but she didn't. Not that she knew if she could actually do it or not, but this was one of those times she really wanted to try. A little out of body experience would be useful about now if she could head herself Giles' office way.

Kennedy cleared her throat. Willow tensed, waiting for her to say something, but she didn't.

After what had been the longest silence so far… today, Willow burst into action, going to the sink once more and plonking plates and cups into the semi-steaming water.

"I'm sure they won't be that long and then I can get the files," she told Oz. Faith and her parole officer had already been talking for quite a while. "You can wait can't you? I can make coffee."

Oz shrugged, "I guess."

"So the thing… the laundry thing," Kennedy began, still leaning on the table with her arms folded, still annoyed. "I take it we're not doing that now?"

"Well, we have company now," Willow flipped the kettle on and started washing up three mugs in the sink full of nearly cold water. "We can always do it later." She offered, not really thinking.

"I'm busy later," Kennedy reminded her.

"Then you can always do it yourself," Willow snapped, turning from the counter to glare at Kennedy. "I was happy to do it first thing this morning, but you weren't in the mood for… for… suds then! And now isn't good for me, so I'm sorry but you'll have to just cope same as I did."

Kennedy's jaw set and her mouth was a hard, fierce line as she stared at Willow; long enough for her to get a good look at the emotion going on behind the stubborn slayer's eyes – the only part of her that gave anything away.

Willow tried to hold her ground as she made the drinks, not letting her own expression show anything but umbrage. It wasn't easy, but luckily, as she was about to back down and try to make amends for her outburst, Kennedy turned on her heel and left the kitchen via the back door without a word.

"Kennedy, you're coffee!" Willow called after her, holding up the drink made just the way the she liked it.

There was no answer and she let it plonk down onto the table, a little spilling over the edge to slide down the mug and make a ring.

"Sorry, I should have called." Oz said quietly.

Willow shook her head as she handed him his mug of coffee, made just the way she remembered he liked it.

"Don't feel bad, I have a feeling we would have just had the same conversation even if you had called first."

"She seems kind of obsessed with laundry." Oz sipped his coffee, pulled a little face and then sipped some more.

Willow rolled her eyes, grumbling, "Yeah, only when it suits her though."

* * *

Dawn had fled through the living room and out of the front door, followed by Andrew, as soon as she'd realised who the stranger in the kitchen doorway was.

She loved her sister and she wanted to support her, except when it involved lying to state officials to protect skanky slayers – then she was on her own.

The sun was warm on her shoulders and she relaxed a little as she took in a deep breath of the great outdoors. She was still getting used to how clean and fresh everything smelled around here.

Sunnydale hadn't exactly been smog city, but there had been more cars parked along her road than she ever saw out here. At first she'd coughed every time she got a lungful of the monoxide-free air, but now she was getting used to it and she even quite liked it.

"So how come you don't have school?" Andrew asked, reminding Dawn that he'd followed her out of the house.

"There's some big teacher conference," Dawn shrugged. "So we got the day off."

Once upon a time that would have been code for 'monsters in the cafeteria' but she had a feeling they were telling the truth here.

"Cool," Andrew stood with his arms swinging by his sides. Neither of them seemed to know what to do since they'd ran out of the house. "So you look nice. Do you have an interview?"

"Thanks…what?" Dawn looked down at herself; had she overdone the smart so much that the sexy had slid away. "No I don't have an interview. I'm going to the cinema. What would I be interviewing for anyway? I'm still in school."

"I don't know," Andrew shrugged. "College."

"No, that joy starts next year." She wasn't as excited at the prospect of choosing a college as she had thought she would be. It bothered her a little for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on. "So what are you doing today?"

"Well I was supposed to be helping Xander fix up Will and Ken's room, but I get the impression he'd rather do it alone now," Andrew sighed.

"Because of the kissing?" Dawn grinned. "What was that about anyway?"

"Beats me little one. One minute I'm giving Xander stress-relieving advice and the next minute he's kissing me." Andrew shrank in on himself with the memory. It wasn't that it was a bad one; just that he didn't know what to make of it.

If he was one hundred percent honest he'd have to say that once upon a time it was a dream come true, now it was just 'what the hell?'

"He really kissed you first?" Dawn asked dubiously.

"Uh huh." Andrew's earnest look convinced her he was telling the truth.

"Weird."

"With a beard," Andrew nodded.

They'd walked around the house now to the back lawn where someone had thought to put a picnic style bench. Dawn didn't even know where it had come from, it had just appeared one day, but it was a nice place to sit when the sun was out.

As someone was attesting to.

Dawn's breath caught as she saw Reece sitting at the bench, smoking a cigarette, shirtless.

It wasn't really hot enough to warrant the bare chest, but Dawn wasn't complaining about it and it was even enough to over-ride the nasty nicotine habit. His back – all smooth and bronzed – was to her, so she took the opportunity to check her pants and shirt for wrinkles before heading for the bench.

Andrew followed, somewhat reluctantly.

"Hi," she greeted the watcher cadet with a bright smile as she sat down on the other side of the picnic table. "Enjoying the weather?"

Reece smiled at her, "Spoke to my mum first thing this morning; she said it's pissing down back home."

"Good thing you're here then," Dawn chuckled, totally loving his accent.

He nodded, still smiling at her he took a finally drag on his cigarette before dropping it to the ground and covering it with his shoe. "We need some ashtrays in this place."

"Or you could give up smoking," Dawn tried.

It had been a long shot and when Reece simply chuckled at her, she wasn't surprised. "Are you sitting down or what?" she turned to look up at Andrew who was hovering near the table, putting her in his shadow.

"I, uh…" Andrew hesitated still.

"What's up mate?" Reece asked him, smiling. "You've no need to be so jumpy, Pete's on his way home."

"Yeah," Andrew muttered. He was actually looking around to see if he could see where Craig had disappeared too. But he and Naomi were nowhere in sight. He sat down now that Reece and Dawn were both looking at him though.

Dawn was feeling nervous and Andrew's fidgeting wasn't helping her calm down. She tried to block him out while she came up with the best way to ask Reece out.

"So you managed to finish in the top two then," she began.

Reece didn't seem to know what she was talking about, although it didn't stop him from smiling at her – she loved his smile.

"You and Naomi, I mean," she explained, blushing a little. "The winning cadets."

"Oh, that," Reece nodded. "Was there really any doubt considering my competition?"

"Craig said you were the first one to get captured by the Piskies," Andrew pointed out without thinking.

Reece nodded again. "Yeah and he's right. Thing is though mate, Craig only knows that because Pete told him. Craig wasn't there. He was too busy hiding so he didn't have to go out patrolling for werewolves. Puts his gossip into perspective a bit, don't it?"

"I guess," Andrew said quietly, looking away.

Reece shrugged, smiling at Dawn again, "So how come no school today? Not that I'm complaining about your company, but I don't want your sister kicking my arse 'cause you're skiving."

"Some teacher thing," Dawn said casually to his chest. "Apparently we students aren't required."

Reece looked down at himself quickly before looking back up at Dawn, "Don't look at Boris, he gets shy."

"Who?" Dawn's head shot up, her brow scrunched in confusion. Slightly bemused, she asked, "You named your nipple?"

Reece burst out laughing and Dawn went red all over as she lowered her eyes to the bench. Great, now he not only thought she was a moron, he also knew she'd been staring at his nippular area.

"My chest hair, Boris. He gets a little shy, not used to being around others." Reece explained in his cream-centred voice as his chuckles gradually died away.

Dawn looked at his chest again, perplexed, "You don't have any…"

"Shh," Reece grinned. "You'll hurt Boris's feelings." He put his hand over his chest, as if covering the hair that Dawn couldn't even see. "Family curse – chest hair is a bit of an anomaly amongst the Highbury's. The women tend to have hairier chests than the men."

"Really?" Andrew thought about his own smooth as silk chest, and then of his Aunt Maggie who looked like a polar bear, and wondered if somewhere way back in his ancestry he was related to the arrogant cadet.

"Yeah, its my sister I feel sorry for the most, poor girl looks fully dressed in a bikini, bless her," Reece grinned. Rubbing his chest, he added, "And I feel sorry for Boris too, of course."

Dawn's embarrassment stayed with her for a minute longer, but then his absurdity overcame her and she laughed. "And here I just thought you waxed."

"Nah, I'm too much of a pansy for that kind of pain. No offence," he added to Andrew who just looked nonplussed. Reece smiled some more. "So what are you doing with your day off then?"

"Uh," Dawn willed herself to get through the conversation without looking like an idiot, and tried not to look at his chest anymore either. Although the more she tried that, the more urge she had to look harder for Boris. "I'm going to the cinema, with a friend from school."

She hesitated before asking the big question, tried to make her heartbeat calm down a little so that her words didn't come out in an unintelligible rush. Just as she was about to open her mouth again, Reece spoke.

"That sounds like fun, mind if I tag along. We're supposed to be training this morning, whenever Mr Giles gets back, but he said we'd have the afternoon free. I haven't been to the pictures in ages."

"Uh, sure I guess," Dawn nodded calmly, trying not to give away how excited she was inside and how relieved she was that she hadn't actually had to verbally ask Reece out on a date.

"Nice one," Reece grinned. "I'll be done about two, that any good?"

"Uh huh," Dawn nodded again. She and Fen had arranged to meet at noon, but she was pretty sure Fen wouldn't be too upset if they made it a little later – especially if it meant boys were coming.

Thinking of Fen and boys reminded her she was supposed to be taking someone along for her classmate as well, and she turned to Andrew.

"Would you like to come too?"

Andrew was looking behind to where the boy's dormitory was, but his head jerked back to face the front when he realised he was being spoken to. "Uh, what?"

"To see a movie this afternoon," Dawn clarified. "Would you like to come with us? Reece is going and I know Fen is dying to meet you," she wheedled.

Andrew felt uncomfortable, not at the prospect of meeting Fen, if she was one of Dawn's friends then he was sure she was a doll, but Reece he could do without.

Maybe he was being unfair though. After all, Peter had gone, so maybe Reece would be better now that he was on his own. He actually seemed like a different person already this morning, more affable.

"Come on mate," Reece cajoled him, leaning across the bench to gently punch Andrew's arm. "Don't let the side down; you can't leave me to deal with two beautiful ladies all on my own."

Dawn giggled and Andrew sighed.

What was his alternative? To stay at the house all afternoon, creeping from room to room to avoid a grumpy Xander and two upset slayers?

"Okay, I'm in – but no chick flicks," he insisted, already knowing exactly what he wanted to see and already planning ways to make that happen.

"Agreed," Reece nodded.

Dawn beamed at them both, not in the slightest bothered by which movie they watched, they could deal with that argument later. Right now she was too happy with her morning's good work to care.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and got it ready to send Fen a text message, it read:

PLANS CHANGED. MEETING AT 2 INSTEAD. SAME PLACE. OTHERWISE, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

* * *

Faith, now dressed in a pair of Buffy's baby blue sweat pants and a loose-fitting cream sweatshirt – looking surprisingly wholesome and snuggily in the ensemble – was inside Giles office with Ms Devenrowe.

Buffy was outside the door, sitting in the big leather easy chair and pretending to read the first book she'd picked off the shelf – a thick book about the British monarchy; so she was really hoping no one came out of the office and quizzed her on it.

The interior walls weren't that thick and Giles' office wasn't soundproofed, but with the door shut anyone inside was guaranteed their privacy from eavesdroppers. Unless of course, the eavesdropper was a Slayer.

Buffy turned the pages of her book silently, and a little too quickly to be believable, as she listened to the conversation going on next door.

She couldn't hear every word said, her hearing was enhanced, but she wasn't a vampire. All of the Parole Officer's questions came through loud and clear: Why did you not meet Mr Giles as stated in your parole conditions? Where have you been staying? How have you been surviving?

Faith's answers were harder to hear, she was speaking so softly. Maybe she suspected Buffy was listening right outside the door or maybe she just wasn't feeling all that confident right now? Buffy didn't much care that she couldn't hear every word, just listening to the murmur of Faith's voice was enough right now, and she was already planning on getting the answers to these same questions later – providing Faith's jig wasn't up at the end of this meeting.

Buffy turned another page as inside the office the interview took a different turn.

"_So, now that you're finally here, Faith, what is it that you want to get out of this experience?"_

Faith's answer was too low to be heard and seemed too short to be a good one.

"_You realise that to be in accordance with your parole, you must be in either full time education or full time employment by the end of your second week here?"_

Buffy hadn't known that. She'd known that Faith coming here to live – to Giles and Willow's pretend school – was a necessity, but she hadn't realised there was any more to it than that. What was Faith going to do? Surely sending fake-school letters was bad enough, but to have Faith pretend she was attending this same fake-school for the next four years was taking things too far. Willow could probably produce some fake-papers regarding enrolment, tuition and grades – but wasn't that just a little too risky?

Buffy suddenly saw a future where the entire household were wearing orange dungarees. It wasn't pretty.

"_I know."_ Faith was saying, loud enough for Buffy to hear.

"_And that you are already now into that second week?" _Ms Devenrowe continued.

"_What? But…"_ Faith trailed off as she realised the same thing as Buffy – her little unplanned sabbatical had taken a chunk out of her preparation time. _"Yeah, okay, no problem. I can get something lined up to keep you happy by next Monday."_

Buffy wasn't so sure. Work seemed to be seasonal around here, and the worky seasons were fast coming to an end. Kennedy hadn't had any luck getting even a part time job yet and she'd already been looking a week.

Obviously the next week was going to be spent poring over the **situations vacant** pages. Buffy sighed as she contemplated that boring task.

"_It's not to keep me happy, Faith, it's to keep you out of prison and you are already running a tightrope where that is concerned!"_

"_I know!" _Faith stressed again. "_I'll get something sorted out, like I said. I know I was stupid, I'm gonna put it right and I'm gonna make it so this is the last stressful visit you have here."_

Buffy heard Devenrowe chuckle, "_Well if you can pull that off, you'll be my first parolee to do so."_

"_Trust me,"_ Faith responded, her voice full of slick confidence now. "_From now on, all your gonna have to do is tick your boxes and sign your forms to say I'm keeping my nose clean and the other fifty-five minutes of the hour we get to spend together each week, you can just sit back and enjoy my company."_

Buffy frowned down at her book, not sure she liked the sound of that.

"_Well that sounds delightful, but I hope you're not offended when I say I'll believe it when I see it."_ There was more laughter from Devenrowe.

"_It's kinda hard to be offended when you're just doing your job, Ms D," _Faith turned on the charm and Buffy could well imagine the twinkle in her eye. "_Besides, we've been in here twenty minutes and you're already enjoying my company so I don't think you're gonna take too long to convince."_

"_Well I was actually referring to your promise to not give me any trouble, any __**more**__ trouble, but I guess we'll see. And please, call me Deb."_

Outside the office, Buffy rolled her eyes, Deb Devenrowe?

"_Now if we can get back to the formalities, I have to ask you again about your relationship with Miss Summers. It says here that she was the person in, uh, Sunnydale that you were the closest to." _

It did? Buffy closed the book on her lap with a soft thud.

"_It does?"_ She heard Faith ask and then the rest of what she said was muttered and Buffy couldn't hear it, but she was pretty sure she caught the word 'ex' in there.

What was she supposed to make of that? And did Faith really believe it, even after last night? Was that what Faith wanted or did Faith think that was what **she **wanted?

Or was Faith simply lying to Deb Devenrowe for reasons Buffy didn't get yet?

"_Well think seriously about it and we'll talk some more next week." _Ms Devenrowe was saying, making Buffy even more curious about what she'd missed of Faith's muttered answer.

"_Sure." _Faith said, just as quietly, but Buffy was more alert now and the single word came easily to her ears.

"_So is there anyone else you are currently involved with?" _The Parole officer asked next.

Buffy sat forward, her feet hitting the carpet softly as she cast her book aside.

"_I've only been out a week, and for all of that I've been on the move." _Faith laughed_. Give me a chance to at least take a shower, and then ask me again next week."_

Buffy heard Devenrowe laughing too and she grit her teeth.

"_I know this seems a bit personal," _Deb continued, her voice still sounding giggly. _"But I'm afraid I have to ask: Did you have any intimate involvement with anyone on your way here?"_

"_Did I screw any one between California and Ohio, you mean?" _Faith asked, sounding half amused and half irritated.

Buffy closed her eyes.

"_Yes. Did you meet up with any ex's? Did you meet anyone new? You were at Stockton for four months…"_

"_I was at Stockton for a lot longer than that."_

"_Yes, but even four months is a long time to go without certain… activities, wouldn't you say? Faith, we're both women, and I know I couldn't go four months," _Ms Devenrowe laughed again and then seemed to realise she was being extremely improper._ "My point is, if you did have sexual relations with anyone on your way here, its perfectly understandable and in no way condemnable, but I need to know of everyone you've had contact with in the past seven days and you've made that a lot more difficult by not being where you were supposed to be."_

It was quiet in the office for a minute but Buffy kept her eyes closed and her teeth gritted. She was really starting to wish she hadn't given into the urge to eavesdrop. She'd justified it to herself by saying that she only wanted to be close by for Faith's sake. After all, it was Faith who had said she could say anything in front of her.

At the time Buffy hadn't thought about the possibility that she might hear more than she wanted to; through a wall, at least, and so far that was all she'd heard.

"_Yeah, I get it," _Faith finally said. "_You need to know if I've boinked any undesirables and plotted naughty things in the afterglow."_

"_So have you?"_ Devenrowe asked casually.

Buffy held her breath.

"_Well I met a guy called Arnie Jackson on a ranch, and a couple of chicks in a bar, and we passed the time, but I didn't sleep with any of them."_

Buffy let go of her breath and it whooshed out quietly as her eyes opened; she smiled. Relief to the power of ten. She'd known Faith hadn't, somehow, deep down, but it was still nice to have it confirmed.

"_And you were right, four months is waaay too long to go without," _Faith continued, her voice all purr-y now. Buffy quirked an eyebrow. "_Maybe now I'm here, finally, I can start putting some energy into that instead."_

"_I highly recommend it," _Buffy obviously couldn't see, but she'd bet anything that Ms Devenrowe was smiling flirtatiously at this point. "_The less frustration in your life right now, the better."_

"_So does that come under your jurisdiction, Deb? Is that one of your duties as my PO? Make sure I'm not too tense so I'll be easier to handle."_ Faith's voice had definitely gone down a number of notches towards sexy.

Buffy stood up, her arms tightly by her sides. She didn't know what she was going to do, run in there screaming, or run away screaming, but she was pretty sure screaming of some kind was going to happen in the few minutes.

"_Well not officially no, but I do like the idea of handling you easier." _

Ms Deb Devenrowe was putting the highly inappropriate moves on **her** girlfriend! Buffy's fists clenched at her sides as she glared at the door to Giles office and the scream started to bubble up her throat.

"_Yeah well I did promise I'd be a model parolee_ and_ that you'd enjoy my company," _Faith's extra-husky voice rolled out of the office. "_And it's been a hella long four months so…"_

The scream had reached the back of her throat and Buffy had to get out of there before it came any further. Not even bothering to hear any more – because really, who in their right mind would want to? – She turned and legged it out of the front door.


	5. Act 2:2

Hi guys.Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. You all rock. Here's the next part.

* * *

Andrew had left Dawn and Reece talking about movies (after his Brosnan-as-Bond impersonation had earned him a double loser stare) and now he was wandering the grounds trying to find Craig.

He'd already checked the boy's dormitory, but there was no one in there amongst the mess the cadets had left while packing. He checked the training field when he heard grunts coming from behind the hedge, but it was just Vi, Rona and Alison doing some cool Jedi-aerobisized Kata. He checked the garage-barn, the unused stables and, very warily, the woodshed – which was full of chickens surprisingly, but that was way better than coming face to shin with a Pixie this morning. They clucked at him and he gave them a little wave before firmly re-shutting the door.

He peered in the window of the girl's dorm, but there was no one in there either. He wasn't going to try the training barn, it was kept locked anyway when a Slayer wasn't using it, and if a slayer was in there – he wasn't gonna poke his head around the door and risk losing it.

Both Kennedy and Buffy seemed really tense this morning and Yoda only knew what kind of mood Faith was going to be in after her meeting.

Just as Andrew was just about to give up and go slump in front of the television until it was time to get ready for the cinema – maybe he'd get lucky and there would be something new on the sci-fi channel for once – he spotted Craig sitting in the sun with his back to the training barn, playing tug-of-war with Goorzar.

Andrew almost jogged over, the nervous anticipation he was feeling adding some frisk to his step. "Hi."

Craig looked up, startled by his voice, and then looked away, his face sullen. "Alright."

Goorzar bolted towards Andrew as soon as she heard his voice and he dropped to his knees on the grass before her Taz-like welcome could knock him on his behind. He caught her as she jumped into his arms and gave her a cuddle.

"You looked like you were having fun," he said over the demon's excited grunting.

Craig simply looked down at the rope now dangling loosely from his hand; the other end was covered in demon spit from where she'd used her teeth to do the tugging.

"So where did Naomi go?" Andrew asked next, feeling really uncomfortable with the boy's uncharacteristic silence.

"Dunno, bog maybe?" Craig threw the short piece of rope away from him.

When Goorzar saw, she used Andrew as a springboard and threw herself after her toy. Craig finally smiled as Andrew rubbed his chest where her feet had struck him.

"Goorzie, be more gentle!" he scolded, looking down his t-shirt to see the damage. Sure enough there were two slightly red marks forming between his nipples. "Ow."

"You okay?" Craig checked, although his smile seemed to be slipping upside down again already.

"Yeah, this is nothing," he said bravely. "You should have seen the bruises she covered me, Kennedy and Dawn in when she first arrived."

Craig nodded, his eyes remaining on the grass. "Wish I had."

"So are you really mad about having to stay here for a while?" Andrew asked, hoping to lighten his new friend's mood before he asked his big question. "It's not that bad really, and I'm sure Mr Giles is only doing it to help you. He's been really good to me, especially after…everything that happened," he finished quietly.

"What happened?"

Andrew looked at Craig's profile as the other boy watched Goorzar playing a few feet away. He did want to tell him, it would be nice to talk it out, get some of the guilt off of his chest with someone not already pre-disposed to hate him for his actions in a previous life – and it felt like a previous life these days, so different to the one he was living now – but he didn't know how. Especially when Craig was talking like he had a strict word limit for this conversation.

"Uh, nothing interesting."

Craig looked up again, "You mean you don't want to tell me about it."

"S'not that, I promise. It just doesn't make me look good," he admitted.

"Why do **you** care whether you look good to me or not?" Craig's eyes were on his hands resting in his lap.

Andrew stayed silent, looking down at Goorzar who had come to sit by his side, chewing her rope happily. He didn't know really, he just knew that he did care and that was why he didn't want to say anything that might-that **would**-make Craig think less of him.

Craig was the only one here who didn't **already** think the worst of him.

"I mean, as long as your hero Xander Harris thinks you look good enough to kiss, what do the rest of us mater." Craig muttered, his hands twisting over one another as he seemed to be making a good deal of effort to not look at Andrew.

"I didn't kiss Xander!" Andrew insisted as he realised what was bugging the guy. "His lips just attacked mine and mine were defenceless to do anything but…"

"Kiss back?"

"You wouldn't understand it was like we couldn't control ourselves or something, like an alien force was sucking our lips together…"

"I know," Craig interrupted, standing up. "But you didn't have to enjoy it so much."

Andrew stood up too. "What makes you think I enjoyed it?"

"Well… its Xander, it's pretty plain you have a thing for him a mile wild. You're always trying to help him before you help yourself; you're even willing to spray toxic shit around an enclosed space for him! People don't do that sort of thing unless they've got the hots for the person they're doing it for."

"It's not like that. I owe Xander my life," Andrew started dramatically, but ran out of steam quickly, "But I don't… 'Cause that would be kinda inappropriate."

"Because he's a man?" Craig's voice wasn't getting any friendlier.

"No, I told you! I had a… I didn't get beaten up in school _just_ because I was a nerd, you know!"

He remembered the beating Larry and his friends had given him in seventh grade when he'd accidentally wandered into a locker room full of sophomores at the high school. He'd only been looking for his brother, but the older boys had **not **believed that.

Craig seemed to have untensed a little, enough to nudge Andrew's arm with his fist anyway, "So you're not secretly hoping for another go at kissing Mr Harris, then?"

Andrew shook his head, "It would never happen again anyway. Like I said, I don't even know what happened this morning to make…_that_….happen."

Craig coughed and then cleared his throat, "Maybe it's just something in the air today."

"Maybe," Andrew agreed. He was still a little concerned by it, but eager to get away from the topic. "So there's this thing this afternoon, down by the lake, uh, in the Single-plex."

"Yeah?" Craig looked interested so Andrew went on.

"Dawn is going to see a movie with her friend and she asked me and Reece to go."

"Sounds like it will be a nice little foursome," Craig said quietly, looking down at Goorzar, who was looking up at them wondering why they weren't playing with her.

"You can come if you want," Andrew continued, too nervy about what he was going to ask to register Craig's irritated tone. "I mean, if you wanted, you could come, like, with me?" he finished hopefully.

Craig met Andrew's eyes again, his smile looking mondorifically shocked.

"Er," Craig paused, still smiling, for long enough to make Andrew think he was about to be made fun of, but then he got his act together. "Er, yeah, that would be… that would be…" he nodded a few times. "…yeah. What time do you want me ready?"

"Just before two," Andrew's words tumbled over themselves as he tried to contain his pleasure. "You don't mind that Reece is going?"

"Not ideal," Craig admitted with a shrug and a cocky smirk. "but I've never let him stop me doing anything before and I'm not stupid enough to let _this_ be the first time."

"Me neither," Andrew beamed.

His legs feeling shaky with adrenaline, and so he sank to his knees once more to fuss Goorzie, before they embarrassed him by giving way. Craig squatted next to him, raking his nails through the thick dark hair of the baby demon's back as they smiled at each other.

'_I have a date! I asked and Craig had said yes, it's never been that easy before! This was so cool. But… now what do I do?' _he wondered as he carried on smiling nervously.

* * *

Buffy held the frustrated scream behind her tightly closed lips until she got around the side of the house, ready to let rip with only the big outdoors as her audience… except not.

Dawn was sitting at the picnic bench between the back door and the training barn, deep in conversation with the smarmy English cadet, Reece.

Normally, that would have worried Buffy, Dawn was way too spellbound by the dreamy jerk, but right now she had bigger things on her mind. Dawn and Reece seemed too engrossed in each other to even notice as she power walked past them, the human equivalent of a growl starting to make itself heard despite her best efforts to not completely embarrass herself.

The training barn was the closest and without slowing down she pushed her palm into the large wooden door and slammed it back on its hinges. It bounced back towards her and she caught the edge with her fingers to slam it shut again. Three steps into the gloom she gave way to the guttural shriek coursing up her throat.

She went on for some time, her eyes clenched closed, her hands curled into tight fists, wordlessly shouting her frustration. Finally, feeling marginally better, she drew in a big, deep breath and let it out again slowly.

"Did that help?"

Kennedy's calm voice startled Buffy and her eyes popped open to see the younger slayer sitting at the back of the barn on a thick pile of rectangular training mats. She was reading a copy of Playboy and just the row of lights above her was on, leaving most of the room, Buffy included, in shadow.

"Nope, not really." Buffy walked to the where she was sitting. "What are you doing hiding in here in the dark anyway? To embarrassed to read your porn in the sunshine?" She lightly flicked the cover of Kennedy's magazine.

"It's not porn," Kennedy muttered irritably, pulling the magazine closer to her face away from Buffy's flicking finger. "And I'm not hiding."

Buffy pulled the magazine down so she could get a better look at the page Kennedy was on. A buxom red-head smiled coyly from the glossy page, the buxomness was easy to tell what with the way the playgirl's breasts were posing proudly, and more to the point, nakedly, for the picture.

"Jeez," Buffy's finger propelled itself backwards and the magazine flipped up to flop against Kennedy's chest. "That's **not **porn?"

"No," Kennedy grinned at her reaction. "But if you wanna see some porn I have plenty that…" her face dropped as a thought occurred to her and she glared at Buffy now as she continued, "…that was under my bed and is now probably a soggy mass of ash and melted video tape!"

"Oops," Buffy looked away as innocently as she could. It wasn't her fault Kennedy felt the need to stash pornography under her bed; and shouldn't she be offended on Willow's behalf anyway?

"Will probably isn't gonna feel so guilty about dropping Faith in the doo," Kennedy continued. "Once she realises you've burned all her toys. They're not cheap you know, especially the ones she…"

Buffy's hands flew to her ears and she shouted "Lalalalalala", until she saw Kennedy had given up on speaking. Abstract discussions about the whole girl/girl sex thing were one thing, actual bone fide details about her best friend were another. Slowly she uncovered her ears.

"I can see you and Faith are in for an exciting time," Kennedy smirked, "seeing as you can't even **talk **about sex."

"I can talk about sex! I can talk it, walk it and wear the t-shirt if I want to; it's just your sex life I'm un-talkable about." Buffy boosted herself up onto the mats beside Kennedy. "Besides, I think Faith is going to have an exciting time whether I'm up to it or not," she sighed.

"Huh?"

Buffy nodded, "Yep, she's all in there now, planning on showing Deb Devenrowe just how good a company she can be."

"The Parole Officer?" Kennedy leaned forward in surprise. "Her escape plan is to boink her Parole Officer?"

"Pretty exciting, right?"

"Pretty stupid," Kennedy corrected. "And a pretty fast way back to the slammer. You can't just come on to someone in that kind of position. Devenrowe will do her for… for soliciting benefits or something."

"Actually I think Deb is just going to do her for pleasure. She sounded pretty into the idea anyway."

"Slut!"

"Yep," Buffy agreed.

"So are you going to report her?" Kennedy asked.

"Who, Faith? How would that help?"

"No, you idiot, the Parole Officer. You should get her fired for this."

"And then what?" Buffy asked, leaning back against the wall. "They send Faith a new PO, one who doesn't want in her pants and therefore reports her, without so much as a second look, for ditching on her parole conditions last week."

"So you're just going to put up with her cheating on you so that she doesn't go back to jail," Kennedy scoffed. "She really has got you right where she wants you, hasn't she?"

"No, she hasn't," Buffy shook her head. "Well, maybe she has. I don't actually know where she wants me right now, but if she's thinking she's going to have her state-assigned cupcake and get to lick the Buffy-frosting too…" she winced. "I think your porny-non-porn is affecting my word-judgement here. What I meant was, we're not together, so it's not cheating, and if she decides Deb Devenrowe is a better – or more exciting – catch than me, I won't be giving her the chance to cheat on either one of us."

"Think you can carry that threat out with as much conviction as you can say it?"

"I've gone this long without and I'm counting last night as nothing more than a blip at this point-a very hot, very much needed blip, but still – Shouldn't be so hard to go the rest of my life without, as well." Idly Buffy picked the Playboy up from the mat and flicked through it, not focusing on anything for more than a second or two in case it gave her the willies, or considering the subject matter, the pussies.

Kennedy seemed content to just sit back, arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles, as she rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "After everything that's happened over the past few months, years in fact for you guys, you don't wanna fight for her?"

"You think I should beat up her Parole Officer?" Buffy smirked. "Believe me, I thought about it, but it didn't seem like the most mature route or the best way to avoid incarceration."

Kennedy shrugged, opening one eye enough to give her a side-long look. "There are other methods." Buffy gave her more attention and the brunette seemed to cower away from it slightly. "Isn't there? Like, I don't know, romance or money… or a spell maybe?"

Buffy kept her thumb between the pages as she let the magazine fall closed; pulling her legs in she swivelled on the mats until she was sitting cross-legged facing Kennedy.

"Faith isn't really the kind of girl who goes in for hearts and flowers, or if she is, she doesn't know it yet which probably makes it not the wisest choice for first option. I don't have any money, so paying her for the privilege of being her girlfriend? Kinda out, even before you factor in the cultural stigmatism. And magick? Never a good idea even when you _know_ what you're doing."

Kennedy slumped further down the wall with a deep sigh. "Yeah, I know."

Buffy frowned at the deflated Slayer. Kennedy had never taken such an interest in her love life before and now she seemed positively devastated that she couldn't come up with a way to fix things for her. It was sweet, and completely out of character, leading Buffy to only one conclusion.

"This isn't about me and Faith is it?"

Kennedy reopened her eyes, but kept her gaze on the closed door at the furthest end of the barn. "What makes you say that?"

"Uh, well, to start with… everything." Buffy tapped Kennedy's knee with the magazine, making the girl turn to her, before she let it fall open to the page she had been marking. "Tell me why you'd rather be looking at a two-dimensional, scarily-endowed substitute instead of the real thing?"

Kennedy glanced at the red-headed model for a second before looking back at the door. "Because the three-dimensional real thing isn't in the mood to get her perfectly endowed-ness out for me."

Buffy took a deep breath and bit back an uncomfortable grin–uncomfortable because she really didn't want to be talking about Willow this way.

"You're sulking in here because Willow won't give you a look at her good bits," she cringed. "Not that I think they're good bits, and I'm probably violating several best-friend codes just by referring to her… you know, that way, but I imagine you think they're good bits. Especially if you're this upset you can't see them."

Kennedy scowled at her. "God, you're as bad as her. Of course I'm not upset about that! I wouldn't care if I never got to see her naked again as long as she still wanted to be with me."

Buffy, taken aback by that–Kennedy always seemed like as big a horndog as Faith–nodded slowly, "Okay."

"It's the reason why that's pissing me off. It was her idea to go down and do the damn laundry, but as soon as **he** turns up, she's not fricking interested anymore. What am I supposed to think, huh?"

"I, ahh… think I lost my place on the page a little…" Buffy started, but shut up when Kennedy jumped from the mats and began to pace.

"She was too damn tired last night, I could see it. Her eyes were all swimmy and she said she had a headache. She should have gone straight to bed as soon as everyone was back safe, but then he showed up and she insisted she'd only talk for a little while and that turned into over an hour and we had to get the chickens in the woodshed for the night. Another five minutes and I would have had to carry her upstairs and into bed. That was why I didn't even mention it! And then this morning she has the audacity to blame me for not wanting to. And when I tried to explain how I felt about it all, and him, and that, she just threw a bunch of excuses at me and then clammed up."

Kennedy finished her pacing-rant with a sharp abrupt turn that brought her level with Buffy who was now sitting more alertly on the mats.

Buffy flinched back with the sudden-ness of the eye-contact and tried unsuccessfully to think of something to say that might actually help.

She was still trying when Kennedy spoke again, softly this time. "You're her best friend, what should I do?"

Buffy fidgeted, "I'm still not entirely sure what the problem is." Kennedy glared at her. "You're jealous of Oz?" she hazarded, but backtracked when the glared worsened. "Okay, not jealous, maybe just a little…"

"No, jealous about sums it up," Kennedy deflated once more, running her hands through her hair and messing up her ponytail.

"But you were okay when she was looking for him. Is that because you didn't actually expect her to find him?"

"No. I know how thorough Willow can be, I always expected her to find him. I guess I was just hoping it would take longer, a lot longer, and that she wouldn't be quite so ecstatic when she did." Kennedy tidied her hair back up.

"They're just old friends, Kenny," Buffy promised. "If Willow still wanted to be with Oz, she would have taken him back years ago instead of choosing Tara."

"No she wouldn't, because Tara was the love of her life, her soul mate, the one she would have been with forever if she'd had the chance."

Kennedy's voice was bitter and Buffy realised she was jealous of Tara too.

Oh boy, why couldn't she have just burst into Giles' office and screamed her frustration at Faith and the Parole Officer instead? It might not have been simpler, but at least it would have been her own mess she'd waded thigh deep into.

Kennedy kicked her toe into the cement floor. "Tara has a piece of Willow that I never can, and I get that and I'm fine with it, but it doesn't stop me wishing it wasn't like that. I mean the woman's dead," Buffy flinched and Kennedy paused for a moment out of respect. "Which means Willow has this perfect memory of her crystallised in her mind, but I'm still alive which means the longer we stay together the more of my faults Willow's going to see and the less perfect she's going to realise I am. From the way you people talk about her, it sounds like Tara had no faults even when she was alive…"

"Tara had faults." Buffy said softly. "Everyone does. Tara's were just… I don't know, easily forgivable I guess."

"Maybe, but hers have been erased, and mine are still clocking up." Kennedy continued. "And Oz, the first boyfriend. That's a pretty big thing to measure up to too. And he's here, alive and kicking, and making her smile that smile only I want to be able to make her smile." She was quiet for a moment. "I guess I just don't know where I fit in right now and Willow acting weird with me isn't making it any clearer."

"Well, if you just want to know where you stand I'll give you the same advice Willow once gave me: Ask her! It's the only way you're going to know for sure." Buffy offered.

"Insecurity isn't all that attractive and if Will is already going off me I don't want to do anything that's going to encourage it. I'm more looking for ways to keep her on me," Kennedy shot Buffy a little embarrassed grin.

Buffy smiled back. Now they were speaking the same language at least because she was trying to find ways to do the exact same thing – but with Faith, obviously, not Willow.

"Well, right now, _I'm_ using the 'treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen' play-book," She confessed. "And Faith's in there trying to seduce her Parole Officer, so you can see how well that's working for me. I am so not the person you want advice from right now – I can't even get my own girlfriend to be my girlfriend!"

Kennedy sighed sympathetically as she hopped back up on to the mats next to her, "We suck, right?"

"And we're pathetic," Buffy nodded. "We're pathetic sucktastic…"

"Losers." Kennedy nodded along.

"Actually I was going to say Slayers, but…" she shrugged in defeat.

Kennedy took the magazine from Buffy with a chuckle. "Wanna hide in here a little longer and read Playboy with me?"

Buffy shrugged without enthusiasm, but tilted her head anyway to check out the page Kennedy opened it to.

They were both quiet for a time; Kennedy was engrossed in an article on Helio Castroneves – a smiling guy in dark glasses and a red jumpsuit – while Buffy read, with serious disbelief that what she was seeing was natural, the stats and bio of a raven-haired bare beauty on the opposite page.

"So," Kennedy suddenly started her eyes still on the article. "Are you gonna fight for her?"

"Oh yes," Buffy nodded, her eyes on the model's stupidly perty double-F breasts and zero-sized waist. "Until it kills one of us, probably. I've just got to figure out how to do it without her realising I'm doing it. You?" she asked casually.

"Willow likes romance, I have money and there's a whole room full of magick stuff at my disposal… as a last resort," she added quickly. "One way or another, Oz is going home with his tail between his legs."

The two slayers shared a conspirational smirk before innocently going back to the Playboy.

* * *

"Yeah well I did promise I'd be a model parolee, and that you'd enjoy my company_," _Faith chuckled. "And it's been a hella long four months so…"

She let the sentence come to nothing as she gave Deb a winning smile. She didn't know if this chick was for real or not. She was half-expecting this to be a whacked-out test Buffy had devised for her. Maybe any second her 'parole officer' would whip out a cd player and start stripping off her prim and proper suit to a bump n grind classic.

Of course, if that was the case, Faith was probably failing already, but she couldn't pass up the chance that this might keep her out prison. It occurred to her that playing her PO like this wasn't smart either and could land her ass in even deeper trouble, but hey, the professional chick had started it, Faith was just having fun.

Deb was holding her gaze with a small smile, but in a flash seemed to regain herself and looked back down at the notes she was making.

"Where was I?" she asked herself, rubbing the back of her neck and – by the looks of it – deliberately avoiding eye contact now. "Ahh, yes, right. We're almost done here today, Faith, just one or two more things. I'm going to reschedule my meeting with your sponsor, Mr Giles, for Friday of this week. I suspect he'll be able to tell me less today about how you're settling in than you have – and that's not going to look good on your file now is it? I'd like you to take some time this week to write down everything you've done in the past seven days. _Everything_."

"You want me to write you a vacation report?" Faith groaned, there was more than one reason she'd dropped out of high school, all that writing was one of them.

"Are you going to make me remind you again whose fault this is?" Deb asked. "If you'd been where…"

"I get it," Faith interrupted with a wave of her hand. "My fault. I'll write it, just don't expect to be able to read it."

Deb sighed, "At least try and make it legible. I'd also like to meet privately with Miss Summers at some point in the near future…"

"Why?" Faith stopped slouching in the leather chair. "I already told you B has nothing to do with this."

"Then she shouldn't have any trouble speaking to me. She knows you better than I do, maybe better than anyone else here too, and she's more of an equal you might say…"

"You might, she wouldn't," Faith made a mild noise of amusement at the uncomfortable truth.

"…At least more so than Mr Giles is at this point. Faith I hate to tell you this, but you and I are going to become very close over the next couple of months. Very very close," Deb gave her another of those flirty smiles as she finally made eye-contact again.

"Is that a fact?" Faith let her eyes loosen the PO's clothing, making her own interest very clear.

"Yes, so you had better get used to it. For the next couple of months at least Faith, your butt is as good as mine." Her parole officer gave her a playful wink before standing and gathering up her millions of forms and reports.

Faith raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing as she watched her pack her stuff back into the fancy briefcase. When Deb was ready, she stood too, obviously they'd finished.

Not quite. "Remember, one week from today you need to be in…"

"Something that stops my thumbs from getting idle, I got it," she promised.

"Something official that keeps your thumbs busy," Deb corrected. "Getting the best ever score on Grand Theft Auto isn't going to cut it."

Faith laughed, repeating, "I got it."

Deb made her way to the door, Faith made sure she got there first and opened it for her. Hell, if she had an apple in her pocket she'd shine it on Buffy's boring sweater and hand it to the parole officer.

"I'd also like you to have a little think about what we discussed earlier. Having some long term goals, or even short term ones more specific than 'staying out of trouble' will help you tremendously. They don't have to be titanically proportioned…"

"Big, right?" Faith gave her a grin as she recognised the word. See, she could learn as well as the next retard when she wanted. They were standing in the living room again now and she looked around confused, trying to remember the way back to the kitchen.

"Yes," Deb agreed. "Start small, we can build up to the big stuff when you feel more settled. Why don't you write those down too and we can take a look together how best to achieve them next week."

"More homework," Faith groaned again.

"Uh huh," Deb nodded, offering: "If it's too much I can ask them to give you back your old laundry job."

"Yeah that was a resident's only position, so I think I'll pass," Faith sneered. "You want me to write? I'll write. I'll write you a book report on Moby-frickin'-Dick if ya want me to."

"You've read Moby Dick?"

Faith shook her head, "Stood on it once in third grade to reach the supply closet key."

It was Ms Devenrowe's turn to shake her head, "I really don't want to know. And the other thing we discussed – an hour with Dr …"

"I'll think about it." Faith cut her off, feeling uncomfortable.

She looked around some more and spotted a door hidden almost behind some stairs. It was an exterior door by the looks of it, just what she needed.

"So we're good then," she checked, shepherding the woman towards the quickest way out. "You're not going to call the cops on me for violating my parole?"

"No. I like you Faith," she said, seemingly sincere. "And God help me I may live to regret it, but I'm giving you one more chance. You were here to meet me, and that makes me think that you're telling the truth about your reluctance to return last week. Be warned though, this is the last chance you'll get from me. If I get caught out doing you favours, I'll be in even more trouble than you and… I don't like you that much," she grinned.

"Like I said, I'll be as good as gold from here on in," Faith pulled the front door open for her. "_Anything_ you want me to do, I'll do."

She'd meant the writing shit, but she knew it could be taken the other way too, and from the look Deb gave her, Faith was pretty sure it had been.

The woman bit her lip for a second before nodding, "That's good to know. I'll see you next week, Faith." She held out her hand.

Faith shook it, holding on to it for perhaps a second too long to go with her disarming smile. Deb Devenrowe gave her one last steamy look before she turned to leave and Faith slammed the door shut after her with a giant sigh of relief.

"Okay, that was wicked crazy," Faith decided, flopping down into one of the armchairs. "What am I gonna do if she actually does want sexual favours for keeping quiet?" she wondered with a chuckle.

The woman was attractive, that was for sure, and Faith hadn't been completely faking her interest. That was the weird part. This was the first time from what she could remember – since leaving Buffy in LA – that the thought of screwing someone else had seriously crossed her mind. She just hadn't been interested: not in anyone from the clink, or Arnie or the vampire chick she'd met in Ogallala.

She'd thought about screwing Buffy plenty of course; after all she was only human. And boy did that fantasy not hold a candle to the real thing.

The night before had been freakin' amazing and if Buffy hadn't already sexily removed her socks for her, it would have rocked them right the hell off her frickin' feet anyway – and since when the hell was sock removal sexy?

Faith had pushed the boundaries further and further all night and Buffy had kept right up with her and then pushed them a little further herself.

She couldn't even remember falling asleep, which went to show how damn good it had been, because normally she couldn't sleep a wink with another body in the bed with her.

Judging by the way B was acting this morning though; it looked like it was a one time only deal. So maybe there was no harm in keeping Deb happy any way she wanted.

She thought about the parole officer again; tried to imagine doing the stuff with her that she'd done with Buffy. She frowned with the effort, but all it left her with was a 'meh' feeling. Maybe – if no other opportunities presented themselves – but otherwise…

Faith shrugged to herself, forgetting Deb Devenrowe for the time being, and looked around the large living room.

It was nice; obviously the designer had gone for refined, with the expensive furniture and decor. It was like a gentleman's bachelor pad. Giles must have had first choice – or been paying – she decided, but the girls (or maybe Xander and Andrew) had made it a little more gender-neutral, with the ornaments on the shelves between the hundreds of books, and the magazines on the coffee table, and the peach throw over the couch which matched all of the peach cushions and the dark over-ripe peach curtains hanging at the windows.

It looked a lot more lived in that it probably would have if Giles had his way, but from what Faith had gathered that morning there were a **lot** of people living here, making that unavoidable.

There was the sound of a key in the lock and the front door re-opened. She looked up, wondering who it might be and hoping it was someone who could point her in the right direction of breakfast. She hadn't eaten since yesterday morning and now she was finally getting some down-time her stomach was screaming at her.

It was Giles, reading a newspaper as he walked in and looking at least a little more relaxed than he had earlier.

"Hey."

He looked up, slightly startled, but then he smiled. A proper smile and the first one she'd seen directed at her so far today. It dropped years off him.

"Hello Faith, sorry I didn't see you there. I was just looking for somewhere quiet to recover from the airport – hateful place."

Faith stood up to face him, nervous all over again. "Yeah, I'll just get out of your way then."

"No, there's no need." He dropped his paper onto the coffee table and gestured for her to take her seat again. "I see you found some clothes."

"Oh, yeah," Faith looked down at herself. "Buffy's. They don't exactly suit me."

"On the contrary, I think you look very nice." He sat down on the couch even though she was still standing there feeling awkward.

"Thanks." She fidgeted with the sweater cuffs.

"We'll have to get you some of your own, of course. Perhaps tomorrow if nothing crops up."

"Uh, yeah, that'd be cool, but… I don't actually have any money yet." she did take a seat now, but only because she felt less like jumpy being on the same level as him. "So… 'fraid it might be a while before I can give you any…"

She'd been about to say rent, might as well get the biggest issue out of the way right off the bat, but he spoke over her.

"Of course not, I'd be surprised if you did," he smiled. "We'll take it out of your stipend."

"My what?"

He smiled again, but not in a patronizing way like she expected.

"Your salary, of a sort anyway. We can discuss it later. Was that Ms Devenrowe my taxi passed on the lane?" He checked his watch. "She was a little earlier than I expected."

"My salary?"

He gave a dry chuckle, but didn't elaborate. "Your parole officer, Faith. She was just here, I believe?"

"Oh yeah, Deb. She seems pretty cool. She isn't going to turn me in today anyway." Faith decided not to tell him why that might be. "She wants to meet with you Friday instead of today. To give you time to evaluate me, I guess."

Giles looked confused. "Was there a reason she might? Turn you in that is."

"Willow was kinda havin' a go about me not being here when I should have been, just as she turned up." Faith explained reluctantly. "To say it made her first impression of me a little bad would be one of those understatements you British love so much."

"So Willow rather put her foot in it?" he asked with either honest sympathy or an emmy-winning act of it.

Faith shrugged. "Not her fault."

Giles nodded his head in agreement, but still looked friendly enough. Faith decided to take the chance to give her little speech while he was in this mood.

"So G… I mean Giles," she corrected herself quickly before pausing.

Wow the whole speech she'd been practising since getting on the bus two nights ago had gone right out of her head. Deciding to just to go with whatever her mouth came up with, she hoped it wouldn't sound to lame.

"I… I'm sorry I didn't meet you last week. It was totally retarded of me. I suppose I just wanted to, I don't know; enjoy my freedom for a bit before I came back here to be shackled to the stake for the rest of my life. I shouldn't have done it and I know you put your neck on the line for me and I'm really sorry."

"Did you enjoy it, your freedom I mean?"

Faith looked away. "Some of it."

When he didn't say anything she looked back, saw his expression and relented. "A very small sum of it."

"Then why don't you tell me why you really ran?"

She should have expected that. After all he was the smartest man she'd ever met in her life, with perhaps the exception of the Mayor, but the two were worlds apart. Plus one was dead now, so he couldn't have been all that smart.

"Can't I just say I'm sorry a few dozen more times instead?" She didn't get an answer, just that look again, which was answer enough she supposed. "I guess I was scared," she said quietly. "Scared of coming back here and making it work."

"With Buffy?" Giles asked.

"No," she shook her head slowly. "With you all. Everything. I'm scared of trying to make my life work, you know, the right way. In case I can't. I needed some time, or at least I thought I did, to get my head straight on a few things."

"What things?"

She looked reluctant to answer because she was and Giles picked up on it.

"Faith, you don't have to tell me – at least not right now – if you don't want to, but maybe I can help and that is what I am here for after all."

Faith shrugged. "I was let out too soon. I did something… there was this thing, right before my appeal, and I didn't handle it as well as I should have done. But I think I probably handled it as well as I could have done and so I don't think I should have been let go until I could have handled it as well as I should have done."

Her answer confused even her, but Giles seemed to cut through the words to the meaning easy enough. Probably thanks to all those years Watching Buffy. Surprisingly he didn't ask what she'd done, he just asked,

"Don't you think, perhaps, that knowing you should have handled it better is good enough? Maybe not for your conscience, but for your freedom?"

She nodded slightly, "Maybe."

"I understand your fear, Faith. I have led far from a blameless life myself, but by hiding behind it you are not helping yourself or anyone else."

"Easier said," she admitted.

"Agreed," he nodded once. "So have you explained all of this to Buffy?"

Faith grinned uneasily. "She's not interested."

"I think you'll find she very much is."

She shook her head. "No, G, she ain't. If she was, she would have demanded explanations by now, you know that. The B I remember wasn't exactly shy about making herself clear."

"The Buffy you remember is perhaps somewhat blurred and more than a little out of date," Giles told her, his voice growing stern. "You have to give her the same chance you are asking her for."

"Who said I'm asking her for any…"

Giles' look shut her up for a second, but she took a deep breath and blurted out the part that really hurt – because talk about karma coming back to bite you on the ass.

"Look, I know your spectacles get a little rosy where Buffy is concerned, and, whatever, you know, but I'm telling you straight. The only thing Buffy wanted from me was a f… was sex. She made that clear this morning. She got what she wanted, she got her closure with it and now she's done. And after the way things have played out over the last couple of months I'm not surprised, disappointed – a little – maybe, but I don't blame her, not really. I was half expecting it to tell you the truth, another reason why I wasn't so sure I wanted to come here. But, you know, the worst has happened now and I haven't run back into the wilderness so I guess it'll be okay."

For the first time in the conversation Giles took his eyes off of her and sat back heavily against the couch cushions. Pulling his handkerchief from a pocket, he removed his glasses for wiping, and sighed deeply.

"Bloody Slayers."

* * *

Willow and Oz were still in the kitchen waiting, unaware that Faith had finished in Giles' office. They were sat on opposite sides of the kitchen table and had been discussing Eric the Werewolf and what Oz hoped to be able to do to help him ever since Kennedy had stormed out.

"So," she asked with a smile. "Are you planning on setting up Big-werewolf-Brother programs all across America?"

Oz smiled back, shaking his head a touch. "No, that would be too much work, just for me anyway and I'm kinda done with travelling for a little while. And I don't know if I'll be successful with Eric. I know having a mentor for a while helped me, but I've also seen it go the other way. It depends on the individual and what they want out of life."

"So what you're saying is, if the big bad wolf really likes the taste of pig, even charms and chants won't make him go Kosher."

Oz nodded. "He's young though and hopefully he didn't enjoy last night too much."

Willow pulled a face as she thought about that. How would they deal with a werewolf running around that actually wanted to eat people? The last time they'd faced that, back in Sunnydale, it had been Oz's 'bit on the side' and he'd bitten her throat out – which had cleared that up nicely.

Could they foist all of the responsibility onto him this time? It didn't seem fair – when they had a houseful of Slayers – to leave it all to him but Willow was getting the impression he was already taking it on. Obviously he was planning to stick around indefinitely then.

Kennedy was going to love that.

"You said something about not travelling anymore," she started. "Is that, like, a recent decision, because of Eric?"

'_Or is it because of me?' _she thought uncomfortably. What if he'd decided to stay in the area because she had moved here?

"No." He shook his head. "I've been here over a year now; ever since I came back from Chuvashia."

'_Just as well I don't wear hats anymore, because they probably don't make them big enough for my head. Wow, he's been to Russia too?'_

Willow had always wanted to go to Russia, well not exactly, she'd never even thought about going to Russia before but now the idea had been put in her head… She **had **always wanted to travel in general and she'd kinda meant more exotic places than Cleveland.

Even though turning down her chance to go to Oxford had been an easy decision to make, considering her reasons – one of whom was sat opposite her – and a decision that she'd never regretted, she sometimes wished – when things were getting especially hairy on the Hellmouth – that she'd at least gone over for the week long tour they'd offered her.

Her actual time in England, three years later, hadn't been much of a trip what with the shakes and sickness of withdrawal, the grief of having her heart ripped from her as she finally let herself mourn Tara, the guilt at what she had become and what she had tried to do and of course the being under twenty-four hour supervision from the second she and Giles had taken off from Sunnydale's small airport.

Not fun and not really the experience she'd had in mind when she day-dreamed about visiting far away places.

"You've been living in Boudenver this whole time?" she asked, surprised. "Talk about your small worlds, huh?"

"A little bigger than that," he smiled. "I have a place on the outskirts of Cleveland. Close enough to the city for the convenience, far enough away to be able to afford a decent sized place."

"Do you have your own place?" she asked, finishing her coffee and noticing he'd barely touched his although he still had his fingers cupping the mug. "Or do you rent?"

"Neither, exactly. I'm kinda borrowing the place from someone on a semi-permanent basis. I'm living rent-free but I have to keep the place standing. And electricity and water? Turns out its easy to get addicted to them."

She chuckled and then asked what she really wanted to know. "And this place, did it come with housemates or… or any other type people?"

He looked at her impassively for a beat before saying softly, "No, no housemates. I live alone except for Ralf."

"Ralf?" she asked, confused until the memory of a very old recurring conversation hit her. "You finally got a Ralf, that is so… I can't believe it. What kind is he? Is he still a puppy? I can't wait to meet him. Can he hold a tune?" she giggled.

Oz smiled too, obviously affected by her enthusiasm. "He's technically still a puppy, but you wouldn't know it to look at him. He doesn't have a kind. More like fifty-seven of them; I got him from the city pound after I moved here. And," he shrugged. "He can sing as well as I can, better sometimes."

Willow couldn't believe he'd actually gotten the dog he'd always talked about, and named it the name. "How does he get on with wolf-you?"

"Not good. After the second month of having to spend a whole day calming down – and cleaning up after – a dog that had been scared stiff all night, I started locking him in the basement just before sunset. I feel mean, but its better that way."

Willow got up to rinse her mug and flick the kettle on again to make another. "So it's just you and Ralf then? There's no, shall we say, significant other on the scene?" she asked nervously, her head still turned to the sink.

She heard him turn in his chair to look at her. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason." She didn't really know, she just knew that knowing would put her mind at rest, one way or another. "You know me, always asking questions."

Casually, he left his chair and came to stand beside her, resting one hand on the counter by her mug. "There has been. But there's not now."

"Oh." She didn't look at him.

"Are you and Kennedy..?"

"We're together! As in together together, like, a couple, with all the togetherness that goes with."

They're she'd said it, and she'd meant it, but he was standing close enough for her senses to be engulfed in Ozness and now even more memories were surging back. She wanted to run into a different room to get away from it and she also wanted to stay and remain engulfed. Her face scrunched with the strain of conflicting feelings. The only thing that was clear-cut to her right now was the fact that there was nothing clear-cut about the way she was feeling.

"I figured," he said quietly. "I was going to ask if it was serious."

"Oh," she said again and now she turned herself towards him. "I don't know. I mean, sometimes I think so…"

"And other times?" he prodded gently.

"Other times I think we don't have that much in common other than a desire to rid the world of nasties," she admitted softly. "And she can be a bit of a brat when she gets all sulky-moody for no good reason. Not that that is ever aimed at me, well except this morning. She has this stubborn streak ten miles wide which can be really exasperating and sometimes it seems like the word 'no' is an unlearnable foreign language to her." Willow shrugged as she realised she was ranting on the subject when she hadn't meant to. "I guess its still early days. We haven't been together that long and we're already living with each other – we're bound to have a few sharp edges to start with, they'll smoothen out eventually."

"She doesn't bring the same light to your eyes as Tara did." He said out of nowhere, his voice and his steady gaze so intense that she felt her breath catch in her throat.

He shouldn't have said that! She wanted to tell him he shouldn't have said that, but she couldn't. She knew he was right about it, but that didn't mean she liked hearing it or even thinking it for that matter.

"Yeah, well she's not Tara," Willow said just as quietly. "No one is."

"When I came back and you told me about Tara, I wanted to fight for you, tooth and claw if it came to that, but I knew…" he paused, reaching up gently to stroke her hair. She leaned into his touch automatically, her body's response not her brain's. "It was there in your eyes, your voice, your smile, your heartbeat and I knew. I wished I never left you, never given you the chance to fall in love with her, but I think, even if I had been there, you and she would have found each other." He paused again and his own breath seemed to falter before he spoke again. "I hated that but I could respect it."

Willow's lower lip trembled and she felt salt sting her eyes, but she didn't refute his statement.

"I can hear your heartbeat now," he continued so softly that she almost didn't catch it over the sudden roar of emotion in her brain. "Does Kennedy make it beat like this?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but she took too long and suddenly he was leaning in to kiss her and she knew she should lean the other way to avoid it but her stupid pesky body was still over-riding her brain and when their lips touched, it was so soft, so familiar and so nice…


	6. Act 2:3

A/n: Hello again. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on the last chapter, it's always good to get people's reactions on stuff. I understand some people are probably thinking: 'Oh my God, what are you doing to my poor beloved characters!'.

That's a good question and hopefully it'll get answered before the end of this fic g.

This is just a short part to tie up act 2.

* * *

When Faith's Parole Officer had arrived on the scene, Xander had been glad for the distraction allowing him to slip back up the stairs and get dressed. As far as he was concerned she couldn't have turned up at a better time because any more questions about him and Andrew… 

He'd dressed quickly, eager to get out of the house and concentrate on labour intensive stuff to take his mind off the freak occurrence, but he'd lingered long enough to brush his teeth again and swirl his mouth with Listerine a few times. Not that Andrew had tasted bad, but…

'_Gah.'_

He'd glanced in the mirror as he pulled on his wrist watch, shaking his head at his reflection. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had happened when he was drunk! Then he could have blamed it on the drunkenness. But he'd been stone cold sober this morning.

Obviously tiredness didn't just kill, it also made you gay.

With another shake of his head he'd left his room, ducked back in when he saw Buffy and Faith coming up the front stairs and then as soon as they were safely bickering in Buffy's room, he'd headed out.

That had been an hour and a half ago, and an hour and a half in Boudenver buying the stuff he needed to fix up Will and Kenny's room hadn't made him forget the details of Andrew's tongue or shed any light on his reasons for making acquaintance with Andrew's tongue in the first place.

As he pulled the jeep onto Sunset Lane something in the rear view mirror caught his eye and he turned his head to look into it more properly. A cab had pulled in after him. Maybe it was Giles back from seeing the cadet's off at the airport.

He sighed with relief as he pulled around the side of the house and swung into the open garage-barn door. Three less teenage boys goofing around was a hell of a good thing. Especially _those_ boys. It was a pity that Reece kid was staying, he was a total asshead; but Naomi – the tall blonde girly-watcher – he strangely didn't mind so much.

Still three less people crowding the dinner table, hogging the showers and causing low level mayhem was gonna be pretty sweet.

Grabbing the stuff he'd bought out of the back of the truck in both hands, he exited the garage and set it all down again so he could push the door shut, pull the chain through the handles and slip the big padlock through some links. He didn't snap it closed, though. They only had one key at the moment and he'd be damned if he was going to cut through the thick chain every time someone couldn't find it. Once was enough.

Outside, sliding out of the back of the idling taxi came Miranda and Cici. He groaned inwardly even as he smiled at them. They'd got rid of three teens and gained two straight back. That wasn't fair. Couldn't they at least have had a few days with the reduced number of adolescents?

"Hey girls!" He walked closer, stopping by the cab and reaching into his pocket for his billfold to pay the fare. "You came back then?"

"Hey Xander," Miranda returned, smiling big and happy.

"Hello." Cici was also smiling, although she didn't seem quite so bubbly.

"How much?" He asked the cab driver.

"It's okay Xander, I've got this." A familiar male voice said.

Xander looked up over the roof of the car. "Oh hey, Principal Wood. I didn't know you were coming."

He did that inward groan thing again. Not just because they were now back up to three extra people, although Robin Wood was further from being a teenager than he was, but also because he'd always felt a little uncomfortable around the well spoken kick ass demon fighter. He knew that if this guy had been in charge at Sunnydale High instead of either Flutie or Snyder, he would have been a lot more intimidated at being sent to the Principal's office.

But then his old man would have probably insisted that his mom home schooled him anyway, rather than send him to a school run by a black guy.

'_Dear old dad, always so full of the enlightened bullshit,' _he thought sarcastically as he came around the car to say hello.

He liked Wood's handshake, he decided. It was all firm and manly but he didn't try and crush Xander's hand like most guys did – the polite, although more painful, version of the pissing content. It wasn't as if Xander's hand couldn't take it, he just didn't buy into the 'You can tell a man's character from his hand shake' ball of crap. Plenty of downright bastards had good handshakes.

"I'm not a Principal anymore, Xander," Robin Wood smiled as he went around to the trunk to collect three suitcases: two girly, one normal and half the size. "Don't get out, I can manage," he called to the driver who was sitting obliviously in his seat, just waiting for his money.

Wood cast Xander a glance, his face impassive save for the 'can you believe this professionalism?' look in his eyes.

Xander huffed out a laugh and Robin quirked a corner of his mouth as he set all the suitcases in a neat row and reached, presumably, for his wallet.

"No really, I'll cover it," Xander pulled some notes free from his billfold. "You're a guest and we run a full service hospitality program around here. These two lovely ladies will even act as your bellhops." He nodded to Cici and Miranda who were still hovering – like they didn't live there and could go anywhere they liked.

"Boy's dorm please?" he added. "Which is now fully functional so you might wanna knock just in case."

"Is Alison about?" Miranda asked as she picked up both hers and Wood's cases like they weighed nothing.

Xander cocked his head, listening to some strange grunting noises on the cusp of hearing that could only be wild boars mating or slayers training… or mating.

"Training field at a guess," he suggested and the two young slayers walked away to dump their stuff and find their friend.

Xander wondered how they were doing. No one except Giles and Buffy had really had a chance to talk to the two girls about Kate's death before they'd jumped at the chance to go home. At least they had both chosen to come back, that had to count for something.

He made a mental note to lend a quiet, supportive ear to them both as he made his way back to the indolent driver's window, cash in hand.

"Really, I should…" Robin was starting to protest again.

Xander cut off his well-meaning attempt mid-sentence, "No, you brought Cici and Miranda back with you..." He stopped, confused for a second. "Did you somehow bump into them at the airport? Talk about your efficient coincidences, huh?"

"We arrived by bus actually…"

"Someone would only have had to go get them anyway so you did us a favour, might as well at least let the Council cover the cost. And this," he waved his twenty dollars in the air, "is good old fashioned Council money; and we've got Willow in there trying to fashion some new money for when it runs out," Xander grinned at Robin as he handed the money to the driver, who gave him a look. "I was joking about that last part," he backtracked.

The driver grumbled something non-friendly and drove off without giving Xander his change.

"Nice."

"So's this." Wood was waving around a ten dollar bill now.

"Huh?"

"This is Council money too. Wired to me in advance by Giles. Enough to cover my fares and those of the two girls, but thanks," Wood smiled big. "Now I have enough left to order a pizza tonight."

Xander stared after the cab even though it was long out of sight around the side of the house. "I just got robbed six dollars, tipping for a service I didn't even use, and now you're gonna get pizza."

Wood shrugged, "Well, not right now, later."

He was looking around, checking the place out. Not that there was much to see here between the side of the house and the garage-barn so Xander grabbed up his supplies for the work upstairs and lead the way around the house towards the back, nodding for the ex-Principal to follow him.

"So… how?" he asked as they walked.

"Well I hoped you'd have a phone, but if not…" he looked around again, slightly fearfully, as the wide expanse of open countryside that was their garden came into view. "I suppose my cell phone will actually work out here, right?"

"Receptions actually pretty good out here, unless there's a storm and then you're screwed. Inside it's crackly on a good day but you get used to it." Robin didn't look so sure. "Besides I wasn't talking pizza, which by the way had better not have olives on it, because I'm sharing. How come Giles asked you to do that? Were you going their way or something?"

"Not exactly. It was my first assignment working for the new Council of Watchers," Wood said, with more pride than Xander would have expected him to feel, and then the sentence actually sunk in.

He stopped, a paint roller slipping from the jumble in his arms to hit the gravel. "Giles gave you a job?"

"Yeah, well my last position was terminated rather abruptly," Wood smiled self-depreciatingly before continuing. "And between you and me, I never actually had the qualifications the Sunnydale School Board thought I did. I just knew I needed to be in that town and I hoped, correctly as it turned out, that they'd be too desperate to get any fool in there, that they wouldn't look too closely."

"You're not a teacher?" Xander asked surprised, although he didn't know why because it actually made his academic record make more sense.

He'd always thought the teachers graded all willy-nilly which was why he got great grades in some subjects and could barely pass others while doing the same level of work – not all that much – through out.

"No, I am a qualified teacher, but I only finished with college five years ago. I guess the School Board just hoped I was an over-achiever." He laughed quietly and then seemed to notice Xander was struggling with his load. He bent to pick up the roller before saying, "Here let me help you with some of that?"

"I got it, thanks. If I let go of one thing now, the whole lot will drop." Xander started walking for the back door again. "So you're like, a Watcher now?"

"No, not a Watcher. Just an operative at the moment, but, well, one day maybe; it would be nice."

"I think you might find that day comes sooner than you think. We're crying out for Watchers just now and the pickin's are slim." Xander grimaced, thinking about the cadets again.

"Don't put yourself down," Wood said gently, misunderstanding. "I saw how you were with the girls back in Sunnydale; you really had a way with them…"

"Me?" Xander asked incredulously as a wallpaper steamer hit the gravel with a dull thud followed by a pack of wire brushes. "Oh no mi compadre, I'm no Watcher. Can you really imagine Giles giving me the keys to the magic kingdom? I mean, other than if he wanted me to pop in and mend a wall or if he needed someone to be there to let the plumber in."

"Sorry, my mistake," Wood said slowly, obviously embarrassed. "It's just when you assumed I was, I assumed…" he gave a tiny shrug and picked up the DIY tools at their feet.

"Then I guess we just proved the old proverb true," Xander said lightly. "Come on; let's go see if the boss is back from the airport yet.

Finally making it to the back door, Wood – trying to juggle the least amount of items – opened it, politely letting Xander go first.

Which was why, even with his impaired vision, he was able to see Willow jump three feet backwards from Oz; a shocked, scared look on her face.

"Everything okay?" he asked, keeping his voice totally casual and pretty impressed that he did. "And if not, you might want to leave explanations 'til later because we have a new houseguest."

"A…another one?" Willow's voice was a low squeak.

Xander stepped aside to allow Robin Wood to enter.

"Hello Willow," he entered, smiling warmly, before looking at Xander again, "Uh where..?"

"Just put them on the table, I can take them upstairs in a minute." He demonstrated by dumping his armload onto the scarred pine surface.

"Robin, hey!" Willow did a little excited jig on the spot.

Xander couldn't tell if she was that pleased to see him or just that pleased of a distraction. He glanced at Oz, but as usual his old friend's face was unreadable.

"Giles said you were arriving today," Willow continued. "Did you pick up the girl's okay? Where are they?"

"Boy's dorm." Xander said simply, wondering why he was always the last to know everything.

"Wow," Will grinned. "They're moving quick."

Robin chuckled as he said, "They took my bag there for me. It's nice to see you again Willow, but I'm not sure of the etiquette here, do I shake your hand or is a kiss on the cheek allowed."

"Yeah, we're a little short on rooms at the moment, what with one thing and another. Thing being people turning up all the time and another being the rooms we have burning down." Willow chuckled, adding, "And a kiss on the cheek would be nice."

Grinning, he leaned down to do just that, "Well, providing Kennedy doesn't come after me."

As Wood leaned away again, Xander could see the brittle smile on his best friend's face. Okay, he'd missed something somewhere – Damn stupid one eye.

"I've never kissed a Principal before," she giggled a little.

"Well as I said to Xander, I'm not a Principal anymore."

"Oh now you've gone and ruined it," she mock-groaned.

"Is Faith still here?" Xander asked idly as he went through all the stuff on the table, making sure he had all he needed. "Or is she on her way back to prison already?"

"Still here as far as I know," Willow answered. "At least I haven't heard any sirens or anything. And you could sound a little like you cared."

"I care," Xander replied without much feeling in it.

"Faith's here?" Robin asked, sounding surprised, and if Xander was guessing correctly, pleased.

He looked up and caught Willow's eyes. She looked concerned, but he couldn't help seeing the funny a little. He tried not to let it show though.

"She got back this morning, or well, last night, only we didn't see her until this morning," Willow explained. "Because she and Buffy, well they had some… some catching up to do, of the… of the, you know, kind." She winced a little as she begged: "Please tell me you get my drift?"

Xander looked up to see if he did.

He did.

"Okay, I think I missed a lot." Oz spoke for the first time since Xander had entered the kitchen. "'Cause it sounded there like you were saying…"

"Oh, man, you have no idea," Xander interrupted him, grinning. "The amount of stuff that has happened since you left would fill about thirty of Giles' Watcher diaries." He thought about that. "In fact it probably does."

He noticed Oz was looking at his eye-patch, but tactfully not saying anything.

Xander looked down, losing the mirth a little. "Yeah, like this," he tapped the elastic running through his hair. "I'll tell you about it sometime."

"Long story?" Oz asked, his voice neutral – not that that was unusual.

"Not really. Just gruesome, and easier to handle after a few beers," he admitted.

The joviality in the room had dropped into minus figures after the small exchange, which left Xander feeling bad for being the cause even though he hadn't actually caused anything. He looked up eagerly when the kitchen door opened slowly, and his enthusiasm only dropped a little when he realised it was Faith entering.

Any distraction was better than no distraction.

"Faith, you're still here!" Willow said happily. It was hard to tell if it was genuine or if she was just glad of the interruption too. Her face dropped as she noticed the other woman's cautious entrance. "Unless you've only come to say goodbye. You haven't have you?"

Okay, she was genuine then.

"No Willow, I got me a reprieve, no thanks to you," Faith smirked.

"I'm really sorry…" Willow began, but Faith waved her off.

"Don't be stupid, I was just kidding. It's not you're fault I don't think before I do. Wish it was. It'd make some of this shit goin' around…" she tapped the side of her head "…easier to deal with."

She entered the kitchen fully, letting the door close behind her. She seemed smaller than usual. Maybe it was seeing her in Buffy's comfy lazy-day clothes that did it; they certainly weren't her usual style.

"I didn't think redemption was supposed to be easy," he said, looking back down at his tools.

"It's not." Was all she offered before registering the other people in the room. "Oz, hey, long time no see."

"No offence, but I actually thought it would be longer," Oz said casually.

"Me too," Faith smiled. "Can't say I'm sorry it's not though." She stretched her arms high above her head.

Normally it would have been a practised move to show herself off, but today it just looked like a comfortable stretch.

"Too see me?" Oz asked surprised, although it barely showed.

"Well, you're not so bad, but I actually meant to be out, you know, of jail. It's a nice feeling knowing I'm out 'cause I'm supposed to be and not just because I have to be." Faith explained.

Oz looked at Xander again, one eyebrow slightly raised.

"If you're free, we'll go for a beer one night this week, and I'll bring you up to speed." He promised with a smile. "2000 to 2003: The 'growing up is hard to do with the demons inside you' years."

"Sounds good," Oz smiled.

Xander nodded, feeling, not giddy with the prospect, because apparently that was not a man-type emotion, but something manly akin to it. Finally a dude to bond with over beers who wasn't a little nerd like Andrew or, well let's face it, an older nerd like Giles.

"Hello Faith," Robin stepped forward from where he'd been standing back by the door again. "How are you?"

She must have already seen him there. It was a big kitchen, but there were only five of them in the room and Wood was definitely the biggest. She looked as if she had been trying to avoid saying hello more than anything, but having that option taken away from her, she was instantly all friendly.

"Rob, how's it going?" She walked forward confidently, gave him an obvious once over, and hugged him briefly before stepping back to reclaim her own space. "Keeping up with the training I see." She gently punched his abs.

He rubbed his stomach lightly where her fist had connected, "Yeah well, never know what fiend from hell might be around the next corner," he grinned.

"I didn't know you were living here too. Jeez this place is like one of those freak-ass communes or something." Faith chuckled. "And does that mean we all get a share of the food? 'Cause I've been starving since before yesterday."

"Well, you missed the complimentary continental breakfast, what with it happening at breakfast time." Xander told her, not looking up.

He had too, but he'd grabbed a burger from The Mouth after his trip to the hardware store.

"So that's it, kitchens closed?" Faith asked.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw her look hopefully at Oz, who was still standing by the sink. – Willow had silently disappeared into her Magick room, shutting the door behind her – "I don't live here," Oz shrugged.

She looked to Robin next, "And I arrived just five minutes ago, but I was thinking of ordering a pizza later if you'd like to join me."

"That sounds great, Rob," Faith replied, "But it doesn't really help me now."

"And she's not having my share just because she's got Slayer parts you want to…!" Xander caught himself before going any further and gave a grim smile. "…train with."

"We'll get a large," Robin said smoothly. "With no olives."

"Or mushrooms," Faith put in.

Xander looked up, ready to argue that he liked mushrooms on his pizza but the kitchen door swung open and Giles walked in.

"Oz, nice to see you again. Are you here about Eric?" The Watcher-man asked.

"Came to pick up the notes you made," Oz nodded. "Then I'll go and see him, find out how he feels about last night."

Giles nodded. "Yes, I'm sure he will find your presence very helpful. Willow tried her best, put together a dossier of werewolf facts for him, but obviously she has no idea what it truly feels like to experience the lunar change."

"Rupert," Wood spoke up, catching Giles attention.

"Robin! You're here, good. Was your journey okay?" Giles walked forward to shake hands and continued without waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry, things are pretty much go, go, go around here at the moment, but this is wonderful timing. For your first assignment I'd like you to work with Oz here. We have a young werewolf running around I'm afraid, and his parents efforts to restrain him last night didn't quite go to plan. Oz, having some experience in this matter, has agreed to talk to him, but I'd really like a Council member there too. If that's okay with you of course, Oz."

Oz must have nodded because Giles started steering both men out of the kitchen towards his office, but Xander didn't see because he was at the sink drawing a bucket of scalding water to take up to Willow's room.

Just before Giles left the room completely, he spoke to Xander, "Has the plumber been yet? All these bodies, the shower block has become something of an urgency. Get on to him for me again, will you please? And be around this afternoon in case he needs any help?" It sounded like a question, but it wasn't.

Xander gave him a tight smile, turned off the faucet and went over to the phone, "Sure."

"Thank you Xander." Giles left.

"'Cause it's not like I have a million other things to do too," he muttered once the door was fully shut. "Phone the plumber, Xan-man. Cut the grass, Xan-man. Build a training room, Xan-man. Clean up the damn soot stains and make sure Willow and Kennedy's bedroom isn't about to fall into my pompous den of Old Spice, Xan-man…"

He trailed off when it was obvious the plumber guy wasn't going to answer his phone and replaced the receiver back on the wall-mount. He'd have to try again later.

"You know, I don't think I've ever heard Giles call you Xan-man," Faith said irritatingly from behind him. He'd forgotten she was there and as he flinched slightly at her voice, he hoped she didn't notice. "Sure you're not just putting all that work on yourself?"

"I'm sure," he told her as he went to the basement door beneath the stairs and walked down into the dark.

He didn't bother flipping the light on, the big duffle bag he used for tool-luggage was on top of a rack of shelving right at the bottom. There were two things he liked to be able to lay his hands on in a hurry – and with _his_ friends they were both just as important – A good solid weapon and his tool bag.

When he went back up to the kitchen Faith was still standing just inside the room, swinging her arms, not seeming to know what to do with herself.

He finished his answer. "When I took my construction management exam I had to learn all about Worker's Rights. You know, things like tea breaks and maximum weekly working hours on site. I guess it's not fair to blame Giles," Xander unzipped his big canvas bag and started packing all his purchases into it so he could take them upstairs easy. "The old Watchers Council didn't even go in for Human Rights, let alone Workers Rights; and librarian-ing isn't exactly hard labour – except maybe the first week of school."

Bag in one hand, he bent to the cupboard under the sink to grab a fresh dish cloth and a big yellow sponge; dropping them in the bucket of water, he picked that up by the handle.

"So is there something I can eat around here," Faith asked, realising he was about to go up the stairs. She was rubbing her tummy now and either she really was hungry, or they were about to have a thunderstorm.

"You're in a kitchen, use your imagination." He looked back at her from four steps up. "This isn't prison, Faith; gotta start doing stuff for yourself now."

She just stared at him, a look he didn't get on her face. He shrugged and started up the stairs again. He did not have time to play baby-sitter to Faith, and he sure didn't want to.

If her time in the clink had wiped the memory of how to use a can-opener, then she'd just had to re-learn it again quick wouldn't she? If anyone should appreciate the survival of the fittest aspect here, it was Faith.

* * *

Buffy was still in the training barn with Kennedy, but they'd both grown bored of the magazine, but till feeling the need of an outlet for her frustration, she was trying to teach Kennedy the Tai chi Angel had once spent hours teaching her. 

Except she couldn't really remember it so she was improvising the slow, graceful moves as she went, and Kennedy, standing to her left, copied her perfectly. The longer they continued though, the bigger the young slayer's grin became.

"You're making this up as you go along, aren't you?" Kennedy finally chuckled as Buffy lead her in a move reminiscent of Daniel-san's stork position before dropping down to squat like a frog.

"I am not," Buffy insisted indignantly, concentrating on keeping her breathing nice and even.

Kennedy looked at her and with a straight face said, "Ribbit!" before jumping a foot forward.

Buffy kept her indignation for a second longer before giving in to giggles and plopping backwards onto her butt.

"Okay, all I remember is the opening stance," she admitted. "It was a long time ago!"

"Well if you can remember what we just did, come next April Fools Day, we should definitely get the girl's lined up and doing it." Kennedy popped out of her squat and offered Buffy a hand up, which she accepted. "Andrew could video it for the internet and we could make a fortune."

"Stick a snazzy tune to it and it might become next year's big dance craze," Buffy agreed. "So did you wanna do something more Slayerly instead? Lift weights. Beat up the punch bags. Spar?"

"All of the above sound good," Kennedy admitted.

"At the same time?" Buffy joked.

"Don't think you could handle it?" Kennedy smirked. "Maybe you're getting old."

"And maybe you need me to kick your ass to remind you who the senior Slayer is around here," Buffy shot back, hoping to entice the other girl to spar.

"Yeah senior as in old," Kennedy goaded. "You couldn't kick my ass if I turned around and bent over in front of you."

"Oh really?" Buffy gave her a challenging look.

This was just what she needed. Going ten rounds, well Kennedy would probably only manage a couple, with the cheeky rich kid would take her mind off Faith for a little while and help her work out some of her frustration – both with and because of Faith –at the same time.

"Care to put that ass of yours where your big mouth is?" she asked, doing a little goading herself now.

"And take the **title** of Alpha Slayer away from you, Buffy?" Kennedy asked with a smirk. "But then what would you have left? Nah, I'm happy to let you keep deluding yourself while I get on with the real work around here. Which I'm gonna go do now." She hitched her thumb at the doors before turning on the spot and heading for them. "I've got Watcher training to do. Go swing your scythe and recount your glory days or something."

Buffy's mouth was a tight infuriated line and, as Kennedy turned her back, she kicked the younger girl's butt with the side of her sneaker – hard enough to lift her feet clean off the floor and carry her almost to the door of the training barn.

Kennedy landed firmly on her feet and turned back, the look of surprise on her face as she used both hands to rub her ass – that was most likely stinging a little from the impact of Buffy's foot – made the blonde crack up.

"Just a little lesson, Kenny: _always_ respect your elders." Buffy said as smugly as she could. "You might have youth and enthusiasm on your side, but I've got all that experience and wiliness on mine. But don't feel bad, better Slayers than you have taken me on and… holy!" Buffy fell back to the side, ducking her head.

Kennedy was flying through the air once more, only this time she was doing it under her own steam. Her foot was out, ready to kick, ninja-style – all that was missing was the 'Hai-ya!' – And if Buffy hadn't moved fast it would have connected solidly with her face.

Okay, so Kenny did want to play after all. Good.

Kennedy, grinning like a maniac who'd just been introduced to her first chainsaw, covered the distance back towards her in four fast running-strides, obviously preparing to launch herself into another kick.

Buffy, expecting the younger slayer to sail harmlessly over her head as she dropped low to avoid it, was ready to laugh at her. Except the younger slayer didn't. Kennedy dropped too, sliding the last two feet across the floor – probably grazing her bare knees galore – straight towards Buffy – again with the ninja foot out!

Buffy slapped the foot away hard before it could connect and leap-frogged over the other slayer while she was still sliding along. Kennedy reacted quickly, lifting her whole body onto her hands so she could use both legs to sweep Buffy's out from under her. Buffy hopped over both of them like she was playing jump-rope.

"You're not even trying," Kennedy grumbled as she scrambled back to her feet.

"Yes I am, I'm trying to make you look like an idiot," Buffy grinned. Leaning to the right to avoid a careless high kick and then to the left to avoid another, she added gleefully, "And so far it's working."

"Fine," Kennedy stopped her exertions, slightly out of breath. "You're the master; I bow down to your greater skill."

"Nice of you to say so," Buffy smirked. "But I think you should actually do it, you know, just to seal the deal."

"Bow?" Kennedy gave her an incredulous look.

Buffy shrugged, not expecting for one moment that the proud girl would do it, but loving rubbing her easy victory in the younger slayer's face all the same. "Just to make sure the lesson has truly sunk in."

"Okay," Kennedy shrugged, bowed low and hooked her hands around the backs of Buffy's ankles.

'_Really shoulda seen that coming,'_ Buffy thought, once she was lying on her back. _'Pride, fall – remember it.'_

She rolled out of the way before Kennedy could land across her stomach and pin her shoulders to the floor. She was halfway to her feet when she was tackled from the side; and then they were wrestling and Buffy couldn't get enough space to pull any wily moves that would out-class the other slayer.

Down here on the floor it was all about who had the most strength and stamina. Faith always won these little bouts, always managing to pin her first, her height an obvious advantage even if their stamina was evenly matched.

Buffy shook her head slightly; she wasn't wrestling Faith, she was wrestling Kennedy. Probably a good idea to remember that. Not just because of the tactical advantages it might give her, but also because she'd be less likely to try and rip the other slayer's clothing off that way.

She'd wrestled like this with Faith the night before. Well not quite like this – less rowdy, more naughty – but it was bringing back a surprising amount of memories.

With that in mind – and not wanting it in there – Buffy pushed one arm roughly between herself and Kennedy, and forced the other slayer back enough to throw her off completely with her knees.

Kennedy landed a foot away, almost in a crouch as if ready to spring back on to Buffy at some sign only she would see. Her eyes were alight, her hair half out of her pony-tail and she was grinning as she panted, her tongue poking just slightly out from between her lips as she watched Buffy carefully.

Buffy watched back, just as carefully. Burning the image into her mind. This was Kennedy – not Faith – this was Kennedy, Willow's girlfriend. Remember that.

'_God, please remember that!' _she thought as Kennedy telegraphed her pounce and Buffy rolled backwards, and to her feet, just in the nick of time.

Well, sort of. Kennedy, with the momentum of her pounce, wrapped her arms around Buffy's waist and took them both back to the ground.

The jarring impact stung Buffy's butt at least as much as her kick must have stung Kennedy's earlier, and this would probably be a good time to stop and call it even, but to do that Buffy had to gain the upper hand first. Why? Just… because.

It took a few more minutes of them rolling around together, grunting as they both tried to get on top, before Buffy claimed victory. Sitting astride the other girl's middle, arms straight and elbows locked to keep both of Kennedy's wrists flush against the wooden floor, Buffy grinned down into Kennedy's flushed face.

"I win. Say it." She teased.

"Never." Kennedy struggled a bit, but Buffy had her held fast.

"Kennedy, you lost, I won, all fair and square. Now be a good little slayer and say I'm the best, and then I'll let you up."

"And what do I say if I don't want you to let me up?" Kennedy's breath was still heavy from the fighting, but it was her eyes that gave away what she was feeling.

"Uh, Kenny," Buffy started cautiously. _'Not Faith, not Faith, not Faith.' _

'Cept, she kinda looked like Faith, almost, sort of, in this not very good light. And Faith didn't want to know anyway, and apparently neither did Willow so would it really be so bad…?

'_Willow!' _Buffy breathed out heavily.

She couldn't do it to Willow, no way. She could do it to Faith, especially as right now Faith was doing it to her, but Willow was an innocent bystander and it was in no way fair to drag her into The Faith and Buffy Show, just to get back at her cheating, manipulative not-girlfriend.

"Not a good idea," she said softly.

"I was just joking around," Kennedy said just as softly.

The look on Kennedy's face said different though, and the fact that Buffy still wasn't getting up probably said different too. Kennedy shifted beneath her, pushing up slightly. It could have been a hint to move or it could have been… Buffy pushed back down against a tensed stomach and saw Kennedy suck in a silent breath. She did the same but hers was way more subtle, probably only noticeable by the darkening of her eyes.

'_What am I doing?' _Buffy's inner-self yelled. _'I don't want to do this. I am in no way attracted to my best friend's girlfriend. Half the time I don't even understand why my best friend is attracted to her girlfriend! So… What…the __**hell**__ am I doing?'_

"If you and Faith always feel like this after fighting, I get why you can forgive her so easy," Kennedy breathed, a corner of her mouth quirking up.

Buffy chuckled softly, feeling the joke break the tension – but not the hot gaze – between them. Maybe looking away would help with that. Maybe she was never going to find out.

"I haven't forgiven her." She purred, lowering her elbows to the ground so that her forearms were laying over Kennedy's, bringing their faces inches closer.

"Really, then how come you let her in your pants so fast?"

"Well, it helped that I wasn't wearing pants in the first place; and besides it was more about need, pure physical 'I haven't had sex in way too long' need, than anything to do with forgiveness."

"So it's not that you love her or anything?" Kennedy asked sarcastically. "You were just desperate."

"Yeah. I mean, no! I wasn't just desperate. I mean I _was _desperate – for her that is, but…" Buffy closed her eyes, smiling awkwardly. "You know what, never mind. Let's just say, I was pleased to see her, but she's got a long way to go before she reaches absolution for leaving me high and dry in the first place. What about you and Will?"

Kennedy shrugged, her shoulders lifting off the floor a little, touching their torso's together, causing both of them to blink at the slight contact – damn slayer hormones!

"For all I know, she's in there getting jiggy with her ex right now. She certainly dropped me soon enough when he showed up this morning. Anyone would think she was cheating on him with me, not the other way around." Kennedy's head was still off of the floor, her lips not quite craning towards Buffy, but it was possible an outsider would read it as that.

"Willow wouldn't cheat…" Buffy began before biting her tongue.

Except for the time she had – cheated on Oz in fact. Life really was just some big crazy circle, wasn't it? And as much as she really wanted to kiss Kennedy right now, she had to admit it was easier imagining Willow with the quiet, unshakeable Oz than the brash, mouthy sla…

'_WHAT? Okay brain, you know I don't really want to kiss her, it was just a… just a…' _Buffy tried to slam on her brain's brakes – obviously this wasn't right – but her brain was pretty strong, at least the evil side of it was._ 'Oh to hell with it, just kiss her already before the moment passes. Wouldn't hurt to find out if I'm suddenly attracted to all girl's lips now and not just Faith's, anyway.'_

"I know about Xander in high school, so I know she's capable of it," Kennedy insisted before changing tack. "So if you're going to kiss me, do it now because I'm starting to get neck ache leaning up like this."

'_At_ _least we're on the same page_.' Buffy thought.

Which was more than they could say for their partners, so maybe this wasn't so wrong after all. Buffy rested more of her weight on Kennedy as she lowered her head, pausing just shy of contact to lick her lips and prolong the nervous tension building in her stomach.

Kennedy strained her neck closer, her arms still pinned above her head by Buffy, and brushed their lips together, feather-soft, not even really a kiss at all because Buffy wasn't quite close enough. "Come on," she murmured. "If we're doing it, let's do it."

"Okay," Buffy murmured back, deliberately trying not to think that 'it' could very well mean more than 'kiss'.

It was too late to worry though because her lips had gotten bored with the hovering, and were now pretty much attacking Kennedy's. And as much as that might have sounded like a tired cliché, it was also a pretty damn accurate description for the way they were kissing.

It reminded her of kissing Spike, back in those first days of their illicit affair, before feelings – hers anyway – had played any part in it. Hard, raw, passionate, but with very little emotion.

That was fine. It was exactly what Buffy needed as a counterpoint to all the emotion she had going on with Faith. Faith had never kissed her the way Kennedy was; if she had Buffy would never have understood how profound their connection could be and certainly wouldn't have fallen in love with her in three days flat. Maybe eventually she would have fallen for her anyway, given enough time, but it wouldn't have been on the strength of just one kiss.

Of course, it had been more than a kiss that had made Buffy fall in love with Faith, it had been lots of other stuff too, but it had been the kiss in the basement that had unblocked whatever it was that had been in the way of Buffy seeing it before.

Not that kissing Kennedy was bad, she decided as Kennedy tried to free her arms, wrap her legs around her, roll them over, anything to gain the upper hand here – and Buffy denied her every time – it was actually a lot of fun in a totally bad, wrong, burn in hell kind of way.

"I've never cheated on anyone before," Kennedy told her as they broke for air, both breathing heavily. "Never had a girlfriend in the traditional sense of the word to cheat on."

Buffy was leaning up on her elbows again; looking down into Kennedy's flushed face while she waited for her breath to come back. "Willow's your first?" she found that hard to believe.

"First steady girlfriend, not first…" Kennedy's hands ran up and down Buffy's back. "…You know."

Buffy did know. She nodded, "Me too, although I guess I'm not really cheating on anyone now either. Faith seemed pretty sure this morning that she doesn't think we're together."

"So it's just me then?"

Buffy shrugged, "Guess so."

She leaned back down; capturing Kennedy's lips in another kiss which was returned for maybe half a minute before the younger slayer pulled her lips away, letting her head thunk onto the cement floor below.

"I'm in love with Willow!"

Buffy had been about to follow her down for more kissing, but this statement stopped her head halfway and popped it back up again. "You are?"

"Yeah," Kennedy said sheepishly.

"You love her? As in, really love her?" Buffy checked.

"Yeah. I mean, I think I already knew, but… now I guess I really know, you know?"

"Then what are you doing kissing me?" Buffy sat herself up so she could look down on Kennedy better.

"I didn't know, I've never been _in_ love with anyone before; and then… your tongue was in my mouth and bang!" Kennedy frowned, her head was still resting on the floor and her eyes were kinda faraway. "I knew it was the wrong tongue to have in there, because it wasn't Willow's."

"Well that didn't seem to faze you before you realised!" Buffy pointed out angrily as she got to her feet. "You were quite happy to kiss me when you thought you just liked her a lot!"

Kennedy jumped to her feet too, "You were quite happy kissing me and you** knew** without doubt that you're in love with Faith. So why are you yelling at me?"

"I don't know." Buffy admitted, her voice still raised. "I'm just a little spun right now, okay? I can't believe I kissed the woman who's in love with my best friend. How're m'I going to tell Willow?"

"No!" Kennedy raised her hands as if she was going to keep Buffy's mouth shut with just the gesture. "You can't. I haven't even told her I love her yet, if you tell her this first she'll never even listen to me, let alone believe me." Looking down, she asked herself: "Shit, how am I going to tell Willow I love her?"

"I can't keep something like this from her," Buffy insisted. "She's my best friend! I can't go through life knowing I'm living a lie."

"It was just a little kiss," Kennedy tried to reason with her.

"No, Kenny, that wasn't a little kiss. It may not have been heart-stopping, but it wasn't little either. This is a little kiss…"

Buffy grabbed Kennedy by the shoulders and planted a kiss on her lips. At first the other girl was frozen with surprise, but only at first.

They were both breathing heavy again by the time Buffy released Kennedy's shoulders.

"That wasn't a little kiss!" Kennedy yelled, touching her lips.

"I know!" Buffy yelled back. "I was there!"

Okay, she was getting hysterical. She could use a paper bag to breathe into or… or a stinging slap to the side of the face.

"Oooow," she rubbed her cheek. "What the hell?"

"You were hysterical."

"So were you, but I'm not hitting you." Buffy's face was still stinging.

"No, you were kissing me…" By the look on Kennedy's face she suddenly had a thought. "And…if you don't promise not to tell Willow, I'll tell Faith first."

Buffy gave a harsh bark of amusement. "Go ahead. It'll give the two of you something to bond over. In fact if you leave now you can probably catch the first regaling of how easy I was last night – Faith is probably holding a discussion group at Barnies right this minute."

She started backing up towards the door as she said this. Not that she really had any intention of telling Willow that she'd accidentally kissed her girlfriend, because it had just been an accident and one they both had never meant to happen, hence the accidentalness. She just had to get out of the barn before accidents could happen again.

"Buffy, please. If you tell her, she'll dump me and it'll be all your fault. You know how you went through you're Bette Midler phase?" Buffy blushed. "Well Limp Bizkit helps me. Loud. At four in the morning." Kennedy wheedled. "Can you live with foisting that on the rest of the house?"

"I'm sorry, Ken. Really I am, but I think Will should know what kind of…Yikes!"

Kennedy was running, launching herself with full Slayer speed and power towards her, and Buffy had no time to duck or slide out of the way before their bodies crashed together and the impetus knocked Buffy from her feet.

'_Xander is going to be mad we put a hole in his training barn door.' _Buffy thought as she waited for the wood to splinter around them.

Only somehow they made it outside without that happening, Buffy knew they did because when she landed, with Kennedy on top of her, she landed on grass, and there was sky above. Dead give away they were outside. So the question wasn't where but how?

"Sorry, didn't know you two were… doing that."

Kennedy looked down at her with real panic in her eyes as four sets of feet surrounded their out-of-breath, tousled selves with their perspiriness and their tangled limbs.

Buffy groaned, '_Damn it!'_

* * *

[End of act 2

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Feedback always welcome.


	7. Act 3

**Act three**

Buffy lay there on the grass, with Kennedy sprawled on top of her, and gave herself a second more to cringe before she opened her eyes. Hiding behind her eyelids wasn't going to get them out of this uncompromising situation.

She groaned when the first person she saw was Reece – the too full of himself cadet – grinning down at her. Of all the people…

He had opened the door to the training barn just as Kennedy had barrelled them both into it; his hand was still holding the handle.

"Don't tell!" Kennedy murmured urgently into Buffy's ear.

'_Really not planning on it.' _Buffy thought as she pushed on the younger slayer's shoulders. Staying as they were wasn't likely to quell any rumours that Reece might feel like starting.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your… personal time." The smirk was plain in his voice even if Buffy was avoiding looking at him. "But Mr Giles is back from the airport and I was hoping we could begin our physical training soon."

Kennedy pushed herself to her knees, one either side of Buffy. "Yeah, sure, I was just about to come and find you anyway."

'_At least he's keen," _thought Buffy, still on her back for the moment. '_That means he has at least one redeeming feature, right?'_

"Cool, 'cause the sooner you guys start with the training, the sooner we can get to the cinema." Dawn piped up from somewhere outside Buffy's line of sight. "Not that training isn't important, you know, for you guys who are going to be Watchers, but life can't be all training, training, training, sometimes there has to be movies. Even the Karate Kid took time out of what was basically a movie about training to do other stuff, like going to the movies and falling in love and…"

Buffy twisted her neck to look up at her sister. "Dawn, suck in some oxygen, your lungs will thank you for it."

Dawn shut her mouth and her cheeks turned pink with embarrassment.

Reece was looking at Dawn with a smile on his face, but it wasn't the usual sardonic twist to his lips he aimed at Buffy or the charming yet insincere smile he readily gave Giles and anyone else at the camp he considered important.

It looked genuine, warm and altogether too friendly.

Buffy didn't like it any better than all his other expressions. Maybe it wasn't the training he was so keen to get on with after all. And taking Dawn to the cinema _wasn't_ – in her eyes anyway – a redeeming feature.

Dawn seemed to notice him smiling at her too, because she blushed an even brighter pink and focused on something else to cover her discomfort. "What were you guys doing to each other in there anyway, with all the banging?"

Kennedy jumped to her feet, looking anywhere but at anyone, and finally giving Buffy the room to sit up.

"Uh, nothing, there was no banging, we were just…" Buffy began, she was starting to blush herself now.

"Even the best of the best must practise the Art." Andrew said solemnly from behind Buffy, and she just knew he was pronouncing art with a capital A.

Buffy got to her feet too. Normally she could barely tolerate Andrew's ramblings about the force and the like, but today, it was _his _redeeming feature.

Buffy nodded, making a big show of agreeing. "That's right. We have to stay one hundred percent if we're going to train you lot to be any good at helping us."

"Absolutely," Kennedy nodded along. "Nothing like a good work-out with Buffy …" she winced at her words, but it barely showed. "…to keep me on my toes."

"Right." Reece drew the word out as he looked from Buffy to Kennedy and back again – taking in their flushed features and wrinkled clothes. "That must have been some work-out; that is, I mean, you must have been going at it pretty hard in there." There was twinkle in his eye that made Buffy's stomach sink. "Maybe I can watch sometime – it might be… educational." He drew that word out too.

Kennedy sneered at him and looked ready to punish his audacity with her fists, but for once Buffy erred on the side of caution and played along.

"Sure, we can set up a little demonstration for you and Naomi some time if ya like. It's probably a good thing if you get to see how quick and agile a slayer can be in the heat of the moment. I'll talk to Giles about it."

After all, these kids were going to need all the help they could get. Reece and Naomi would be getting Slayer's to watch before either of them hit their nineteenth birthdays, which according to Giles was at least ten years younger than the average – Wesley was the exception and look how well he'd done his first time in the field.

As much as she loathed the idea of getting up on stage and demonstrating her mad skillz – as Faith would say – the more slayer-insight the two of them had under their belts before being sent off into the big, evil world, the better for everyone…especially their slayers.

Unsurprisingly, Reece had taken the words agile and heat and twisted them for his own amusement.

His blue eyes twinkled, "Well, ladies, you certainly look like we caught you in a heated moment." He smiled disarmingly and Buffy wondered just how many poor girls had fallen for his sweet-talk, to give him this level of confidence at eighteen.

Buffy turned away, not bothering to answer and realised that Dawn was staring at Reece now, looking extremely hurt. She hated seeing that expression on her little sister's face, but at least this time it had a silver-lining. The sooner she realised Reece was happy to use his patter on just about anyone, the sooner she'd see he was a poop head.

"Training has to be intense, or else it won't prepare you for anything." Kennedy said irritably. "And if you think you're going to get off easy over the next couple of months because you're a guy training with a bunch of girls, forget it. These girls are going to flatten the grass with your ass every single day until you are good enough to stop them. And don't think that's going to happen over night."

"Okay darling," Reece shrugged good-naturedly, still smiling. "So why don't you start training me to handle a girl with super-powers?"

Kennedy's jaw stiffened and Buffy knew she was reining in the urge to punch his perfect nose. Dawn on the other hand seemed ready to punch either her or Kennedy on the nose for taking his attention away.

Buffy almost laughed – maybe it was a summers' women rite of passage or something. Laughing at her sister's fierce expression would not have helped though and relief came from an unexpected source. She hadn't even realised Craig was with them.

"Why don't you get on with the training instead of talking about it; or else we're never gonna make it to the pictures in time."

"You're coming too, Rayne?" Reece's charm dropped, but the smile stayed. He looked like Elmer Fudd – a very hot Elmer Fudd – after he'd just been told it was open Bugs season.

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Nothing." Reece held his hands up placating, though his tone was all sarcasm. "I'm just curious: Did you summon the nerve to ask Wellsy out? Or did you bat your eyelashes a lot and stuff your wish-pillow with scribbled notes of his name until he asked _you_?"

Buffy shared a look with Kennedy. Both of them were happy to let this carry on as long as it meant the heat was off them. Buffy didn't really know Craig well enough to have formed an opinion of him yet and sticking up for Andrew was only something she was prepared to do as a last resort – like just before he was about to get killed or something.

"Training field. Ten minutes." Kennedy instructed Reece. "I'm going to find Naomi."

As she walked away, Buffy wanted to follow, but the house possibly still had Faith in it and she wasn't quite ready – better this than that at the moment.

Reece nodded after her, as Andrew echoed, "Wellsy?"

"I meant you, before you start getting your knickers in a twist." Reece smiled and it was a hell of a lot pleasanter than the smile he'd been directing at his fellow countryman.

Buffy turned in time to see Craig scowl.

"I've never had a nickname before." Andrew blushed. "At least, not a nice one."

"Dawn said your surname's Wells. Seemed like quite an obvious one, but if you prefer Andy, doesn't bother me. No more syllables after all." Reece grinned at him.

Andrew grinned tentatively back. Craig's scowl got scowlier.

Buffy looked more closely, at his scowl in particular. Before she could put her finger on what was bothering her, Kennedy came out of the back door with Giles and Naomi.

"Reece, come on." she called over.

Reece nodded towards the trio before turning to Dawn, and her little sister's eyes lit up immediately.

"Two?" he asked, touching her forearm with his fingertips and even Buffy could feel the magnetism from that one simple number.

"Uh huh," Dawn grinned at him. "Have fun training."

"Training is always fun," he grinned back at her. "It's the real thing that has me wanting to hide behind nanny's apron."

As he walked away, Giles called over. "Craig, come and join us please? While you're here you may as well learn a thing or two."

Craig sighed, but didn't hesitate in following the watcher cadet. As he walked, he looked back over his shoulder, asking, "See you at two, too?"

Andrew nodded eagerly, but couldn't seem to do more than that as he stared at the dark-haired English kid. Craig winked at him, and Buffy thought for a second that Andrew was going to fall over.

"I thought the English were all prudeness personified, but you wouldn't know it to spend five minutes with these kids." Buffy said to know one in particular before rounding on Dawn. "Reece is bad news!"

"Excuse me?" Dawn gave her the typical 'You are not the mom of me' look. Buffy was pretty much immune to it now, especially in circumstances like this. "You don't even know him."

"Yes, I do. Well enough, anyway." she countered "And even if I didn't, I know guys his type."

"You mean you know Watchers." Dawn said with more anger than Buffy felt was really necessary. "You can't tar all guys… Watchers with the same brush."

"Why not?" She shrugged.

"Because it isn't fair. It's like saying all Vampires are evil, which isn't true because Spike was good in the end, and Angel is good… sometimes."

Buffy shook her head slightly. Dawn could forgive Spike everything, given time, probably due to the bond they'd forged while she was dead – a bond Buffy had never fully understood or even tried to once she was back among the land of the living – but Dawn never seemed to be able to forgive Angel for the six months of terror Angelus had put them all through.

"Angel and Spike are the exceptions, you know that. Every other vamp – evil."

"Well maybe Reece is the exception to evil watchers!" Dawn said triumphantly, as if she had deliberately lead Buffy to this exclamation.

"No," Buffy calmly disagreed. "_**Giles**_ is the exception, and possibly Naomi, but not Reece."

"Whatever." Dawn flicked her hair back over her shoulders in a dismissive gesture. "You're just saying that because Giles is your watcher."

"Yeah, but Naomi isn't. And why are you getting so defensive for anyway."

"I'm not," Dawn insisted quickly. "I just don't like the way you always assume all Watchers are bad. Reece is good; he finished joint top of his class, and he knows everything about demons, well nearly everything, more than you anyway, and he's cool too. Have you ever thought maybe that's what the Council needs?"

"More cool?" Buffy raised an amused eyebrow.

"People who aren't eighty." Dawn accentuated. "People who are still in touch with what it's like to be a teenager _now_. People who are prepared to make new rules to suit the modern Slayer's needs instead of blindly following rules that were set down before girls were even allowed to have needs of their own! People with the brains and the vision _and _the energy to bring the Council into the twenty-first century!"

Buffy waited a beat after Dawn had finished her impassioned speech – just in case there was any more – before asking, "You really get all that from Reece?"

"Oh… whatever," Dawn repeated as she threw her hands up. "I like him and he likes me and do you know how often that happens to me? Never! So I'm going out with him this afternoon and that's just something you're going to have to get used to."

"Oh really?" Buffy pulled her best mom pose out of the box, with her left hand on her hip and her chin jutting forward just enough to be authoritative, but not enough to make her look like a chicken – yes, she'd practised it.

"Yes, really." Dawn's own pose was that of the defiant teenager – the same one Buffy had unconsciously fallen into a million times when she was younger and in the middle of a battle for independence with her parents.

"Reece and I are going out this afternoon," Dawn repeated. "We're meeting Fen down by the lake at two, and Andrew and Craig are coming, so it's not like I'm even going to be on my own with him. And we're just going to be watching a movie, not smoking crack in back alleys, and we'll be careful." She paused to see if her level-headed words were working on Buffy. "You can even give me a curfew – no earlier than nine! – and I promise to stick to it, but… you can't stop me from going." Her strong reasonable tone wavered at the end, like she wasn't so sure about the truth of that statement but if she was going down, she was going down fighting.

Buffy fought an inner battle. She wanted to stop Dawn from going completely now – just for the hell of it – but her little sister was right… in a very small way.

She could stop her from going out, very easily – they had thick metal shackles in the training barn now after all – but she shouldn't.

Dawn was fast becoming a mature young woman. She was growing up quicker than Buffy had, if she was honest. Although whether that was because Dawn had nearly always been surrounded by older company, or because of the harrowing things she'd had to endure at a younger age, Buffy wasn't certain.

Dawn had a right to make her own mistakes.

If they included Reece Highbury it was unfortunate, but all Buffy could really do was be on hand to pick up the pieces afterwards – and she was pretty sure there would be pieces to pick up.

So she fixed her sister with a serious stare. "Okay, you're right. Go, have fun, but be careful. I mean it, Dawnie. Watcherness aside, guys like Reece are generally bad news – and I know this because I've fallen for them myself." She added, hoping it would create some empathy. "I really hope I'm wrong, but… Just remember you're a smart, attractive young woman with your own mind. You do what you want, not what he wants – okay? Just take it easy and stay in control. Have fun, but just not too much fun – no matter how smooth his tongue is."

Dawn looked at her a little funny and Buffy winced inside. '_Great, now I'm accidentally giving her ideas! Mom's turning in her grave to reach for the sex- education manual so she can whap me over the head with it.'_

Obviously she'd said the right thing for once though. Dawn's posture relaxed. "Okay, I'll have careful, in control fun and to start it all off, I'm gonna go watch the show."

Dawn's smirk was evil, proving that no matter how overwhelmed she was with her giant Reece-crush – she could still see the fun-factor in him get his butt kicked by fifteen year old girls.

Maybe she'd be okay; or maybe she was just hoping for a chance to kiss his booboo's better afterwards. And seeing as where Buffy was hoping someone would kick him – that was a very bad thing.

Buffy stared after her as she tried to come up with ways to incapacitate Reece that couldn't be traced back. On hearing agonised shouts coming from the training field, she had a feeling Kennedy might be taking care of that for her.

"I don't like that guy," Andrew muttered, like maybe Reece would be able to hear him from two hundred feet and a hedge away. "I've been trying to tell Dawn he's an _agujero del extremo _ever since he arrived, but she just won't listen."

Buffy smiled at him. "I have no idea what that means, but thanks; and don't take it personally. She thinks she's in love, so, unfortunately, she's deaf to any and all criticism – there's nothing we can do about it."

She started walking towards the house. She was going to have to go in and face the music sooner or later. Andrew walked beside her and from nowhere Goorzar the baby demon appeared and put her paw into his hand. Despite herself, Buffy smiled at the cuteness.

"If he hurts her…" Andrew started off bravely, but it fizzled out before he could finish the sentence.

"Don't worry about it, if he hurts her, there won't be enough left of him for you to..." she trailed off wistfully as she spotted Faith through the kitchen windows.

Faith was sitting alone at the kitchen table, her teeth tearing into a slice of wholemeal bread. There were another two slices beneath the one she was eating, but… God! How hungry did she have to be to eat dry bread like it was the best meal ever?

Despite the baggy sweater of Buffy's she was wearing, it was easy to tell just thin Faith had gotten since the demise of Sunnydale. Not that she needed to see, Buffy had been able to tell last night when her hands had spent hours moving over every inch of Faith – where once she had been sumptuous curve and toned muscle she was now lean and hard and angular. It had a certain sex-appeal in its own right, but Buffy just wanted to feed her up and get her back to the glowing peak of health. She wanted to see the vitality burning in those dark beautiful eyes again.

She felt a flood of shame wash over her as she realised she hadn't offered Faith anything to eat the night before when she arrived, or this morning when they'd woken up. It had never entered her mind. Buffy's stomach was full and she'd just assumed Faith's was too, but of course it wasn't! How stupid was she? She didn't have a clue when Faith had eaten last, but she knew for sure it hadn't been in the last twelve hours.

Buffy's first instinct was to rush in there and cook her lover a three-course meal, but she didn't really know how. She could cook, she'd even made a whole Thanksgiving meal once, but it was usually a big affair whenever she tried to make something more exciting than microwave pizza, involving several failed attempts and lots of washing up – due to the food being burned right onto the bowls.

Usually her specialty dish was heating up whatever someone had left for her to heat up; and that gave her a brainwave.

"Andrew, can you do me a favour?"

"Of course Buffy, what is it?" His eagerness to help made her feel a bit bad about her general attitude towards him, but she shook it off.

Andrew had spent nearly a whole year making her life hell – a year of her life that was plenty hellish even without his input. Yes he was making amends, but that didn't mean he got an easy pass into the gang. If he wanted in, if he wanted forgiveness, he had to work for it – and this was a good place for him to start.

"Can you cook something for Faith?" she asked quietly, looking through the window again.

"Oh sure," Andrew sighed relief, making her wonder what he had thought she was going to ask him to do. "What do you want me to cook for her?"

"Uh…" Buffy thought about it for a minute as she gazed at Faith. Healthy or fattening – which was the way to go? "I don't know; she just needs to eat."

"Okay, never mind. I'm getting a pretty good idea of what you Slayers need in your diets now. I'll come up with something." Andrew promised.

"Okay." Buffy fished in her pocket and came out with a crumpled twenty dollar bill. "I don't know how far this will go, but make whatever you want."

She tried to hand the money to him, but he shied away. "I have enough stuff in. I don't need to go buy anything."

"Consider this hush money," Buffy gave him half a smile. "I don't want her to know I asked you to do this and I don't want you just to make her lunch today. I'm talking breakfast, lunch and dinner until she's back to full strength. Are you okay with that?"

"Uh huh" Buffy handed him the bill and he took it this time, stuffing it into the back pocket of his beige cargo pants. "But what do I say when she asks why I'm mothering her?"

"Anything you want as long so I don't get a mention." Buffy cautioned him again. In truth she couldn't think of an answer herself, but Andrew was good with the tall tales, he'd come up with something when he had to.

He looked pained for a second, but then determined as he looked through the window at Faith. He tutted when he saw her slices of bread. "That's not going to do her any good. I'll go make her a proper lunch."

"Andy?" He'd been almost at the back door, his stride purposeful, when Buffy called after him. "Thank you."

He looked worried. "Aren't you, like, coming in too?"

"Um?" She hadn't planned on it.

She'd more planned to hang around in the shadows so to speak for the day; maybe longer. Making sure Faith was okay from afar, while having as little to do with her as possible.

The things that Faith had said to her in front of the parole officer, had hurt – and that just added to the pile of hurt that had already landed on her life ever since she'd considered the possibility of being in love with Faith.

She'd never expected things to be easy, but she hadn't expected them to be quite this hard either. It had been five months, and five months was a long time to still not know if you were going to be rejected or not. So until Faith told her where she stood, once and for all, she was not getting any of the Buffy-bonuses that usually came as part of a relationship package deal – and that included her witty and delightful conversation.

"I think I'm just gonna…" she started.

"I'm not going in there if you don't!" Andrew said in a rushed whisper. "We don't know what kind of mood she's in and I don't want my first clue to be my spleen getting ventilated with my own paring knife."

"She's not going to stab you, Andrew!" Buffy whispered back angrily.

"You don't know that! Just because she wouldn't stab you or anyone you love doesn't mean she wouldn't stab me. What if the parole officer made her _really_ angry? She might not consider me under your protection."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "She's not going to not stab you because you're under my protection, you moron, she's not going to stab you because she doesn't stab people, anymore.

"Yeah, well, I think you should just make sure she knows that." When he saw that she was about to refuse he held his pointer finger up like an exclamation mark. "Hey, I'm doing you a favour, the least you can do in return is watch my back while I'm facing the oven."

Buffy glanced through the window again. Faith wasn't getting any plumper while they stood out here arguing at the bottoms of their voices.

"Fine, come on then…"

She stomped past him and the demon to the back door, totally missing his sneaky smile of triumph.

* * *

Faith had been on her own in the kitchen for a while when she heard voices outside the window. She looked up, vaguely interested, as she popped another piece of bread into her mouth and smiled when she saw it was Buffy. 

The smile only lasted as long as it took to remember the bitch's attitude earlier in the day. She'd have happily seen Faith get dragged back to prison by Deb Devenrowe and was probably going to be disappointed to find her still there.

She thought about taking her bread and going to a different room, but she had a limited knowledge of what rooms were in bounds for her and for all she knew Giles had outlawed eating in front of the TV – he probably wasn't a big fan of crumbs all over the furniture.

The blonde wasn't coming in anyway; she was just standing outside with Andrew. They were talking, but Faith couldn't hear what they were saying. She didn't know if they were deliberately talking quiet so she couldn't hear or if the pair of them often whispered secrets to one another and weren't even aware that Faith could see them.

Trying to forget about them, she looked back down at her bread as she pulled off another chunk. It was fresh, but that was all it had going for it. She'd found other food, plenty of other food – she'd had a good snoop and the cupboards and the fridge were well stocked – only she hadn't known what belonged to who and just helping herself to the good stuff felt like stealing. No one had explained the house rules to her yet and Xander had been as helpful as a chocolate stake.

Buffy and Andrew were still just outside the window and it looked like they were arguing now. It was kinda funny, watching people argue with the sound off, but as she saw Buffy about to glance in the window, Faith quickly ducked her head and bit into her last slice of bread.

She kept her head down as she heard the back door open. Time to see if Buffy's mood had improved.

She looked up, smiling in greeting as the blonde came through the door first. "Yo, B."

"Faith." Buffy was holding the door for Andrew, but she smiled back at Faith. It looked kinda awkward but it was better than a frown. "No cuffs, so I assume you have some good news for me."

Faith shrugged uncertainly, "Good if you consider me living here for the foreseeable good."

"I do."

The curtness of the words did nothing to stop Faith's wide smile of surprise. Buffy allowed her smile to grow a little too, but then looked away.

"It's not all good…" Faith was about to tell her how the meeting had gone when – from her perspective – hell broke loose in the kitchen.

Andrew, who she hadn't even acknowledged yet, suddenly yelled: "Goorzie, no!" – Whatever the hell that meant – and out of the corner of her eye she saw Buffy spin around to see what was going on.

A dark squat figure jumped at the blonde, making her step back and pull back her arm like she was ready to swing at it, but for some reason she hesitated too long. Long enough for it to use Buffy like a springboard to land square in the middle of the table – it's long, wide feet made a slapping sound on the wood.

Faith was moving by then. She had no weapons on her and she didn't know the kitchen well enough to know where some might be found. Hand to hand was the way it was going to have to be. She saw the demon – it had to be a demon – make as if to leap back off the table towards her and she moved first – throwing herself over the pitted wood to grab it.

It was damn quick though and leaped up and over her; she turned her head in time to see it balance on the back of her vacated chair, but as the chair started to tip over it launched itself upwards to the top of the refrigerator.

Faith turned that way herself and tripped on the fallen chair; she had to stick her arms out to stop herself head butting the fridge door. Kicking the chair out of the way, she reached up and got her hand around the demon's thick ankle just at it tried to hop onto the top of the cupboards out of reach.

She pulled its leg and it screeched. Swinging one of its long arms down, its hand smacked her repeatedly on the back of her head. It didn't hurt at first, but by the fourth or fifth smack Faith let go of the leg and ducked away. Sensing its minor victory, the thing squealed even louder than before and jumped up and down on top of the fridge excitedly.

Faith cracked her neck, eyes not leaving the furry little demon and then, too quickly to be anticipated, she leapt for the top of the fridge herself.

It was an easy jump for a slayer to make, but just as her feet touched the smooth plastic surface, the demon squealed delightedly and made it up onto a row of three cupboards – it ran along them to the far end, where it perched, looking back and daring her to follow.

As it saw she was giving chase – she went the floor route, not the cupboard one – it developed a bad case of hiccups but they didn't slow it down. It leapt from one row of wall mounted cupboards to another with Faith close below, but then it had run out of high up surfaces to stay on.

With a leap that Faith found impressive even as she was cursing it, the demon jumped from its current cupboard, and stretched out its long arm so that it could grab the lampshade hanging from the centre of the ceiling.

The thing had obviously been counting on its momentum taking it all the way to the back stairs; what it probably hadn't counted on was the light fixture being ripped from the ceiling thanks to the added weight.

A square foot of plaster fell, and sparks rained down – singeing the demon's hair. With a terrified wail, it hit the edge of the table and bounced off to the floor.

Faith jumped clean over the table, looking around wildly for the creature and finally spotted it crouching beneath a pine sideboard – deep-set orange eyes stared out at her dolefully.

"Goorzie bad gurl," it rasped softly, making Faith – who had been about to reach under and drag her out – stop in surprise.

The thing could speak?

That was when she realised only she out of the three humans in the room had been chasing the fur ball around like an idiot. The whole thing had lasted less than two minutes which hadn't left her time to analyse why Buffy and Andrew were arguing instead of helping, but now, with Andrew skidding past her on his knees to gently reach under the sideboard, she tuned into Buffy's yelling.

"Andrew! Look what she's done now! If you can't keep her under control, you shouldn't let her in the house. Giles is going to kill you, and her, and Faith!"

Andrew wasn't even listening as he tenderly coaxed the demon out. "Come on sweetie, that's it. Its okay, let me see if you're hurt?"

Faith turned her head quickly to Buffy. "Why me too? What did I do?"

"You got her all excited." Buffy snapped, looking at the bits of ceiling all over the kitchen table.

"I thought I was saving us from a demon attack," Faith pointed out.

Sparks were still falling intermittently from the hole in the ceiling, any minute now there was going to be a fire. She looked back down at Andrew. The demon was sitting on his lap now, looking very guilty in a bad puppy kind of way and letting the geek check her over for burns. It met Faith's gaze, bared its big teeth a little and hiccupped quietly, and despite its demonic monkey face, she was sure it was trying for a repentant smile.

She shook her head, bemused and amused. "Where's the electrical box, we need to turn the power off _now_."

"In the basement, under the stairs." Andrew was still fussing over the demon.

Faith went to the door behind the kitchen stairs, the one she'd seen Xander use earlier.

"Here." She turned and Buffy was standing there, holding out a long handled flash light. "Goorzar's little Tarzan trick has probably blown the power for the whole house."

As Faith took the flashlight, the two of them shared a small smile before Faith nodded once and went through the basement door.

* * *

"What the..?" 

Xander jumped up at the loud crash from downstairs and then started to run from Willow and Kennedy's room to see what had caused it. He wasn't even on the landing when he noticed the dying buzz and vibration of the brand new mains operated wallpaper steamer in his hand.

Standing in the doorway, he gave it a look. Flicked it off and back on again. Still dead. It couldn't be broken. He'd only had it a few hours and he hadn't worked it that hard. Leaning over, he pressed the switch for the bedroom light. Nothing happened. He walked out onto the landing, a frown on his face, and tried the light switch there. Nope.

"Okay, _who's_ done _what_ to my electricity?" he shouted down the stairs. "It had better be demons! If anything less than demonic destruction is the cause for my lack of juice up here; I'm quitting and moving to Barbados." He started down the back stairs. "Gonna go make beach huts in Paradise. Island Slayers will be all sexy and tranquil and tranquillity means less broken furniture _and_ less fire damage."

He spotted the hole in the ceiling when he was halfway down and let his eye fall to the debris and dust covering the kitchen table.

"Oh no." Was it so bad that he just wanted to keep on going out the door and not come back for a long, long time? Would he be classed as a deserter? Maybe he could plead to having an unstable mind – right now it didn't even feel like a lie.

"Who? How? And why do they want me in an early grave?" He asked, now at the foot of the stairs.

"It was a demon. You just said it had better be a demon or you were leaving." Buffy spoke up quickly. "And, well, a demon did do it."

"Really? And it just happens to be able to disguise itself as one of you, right?" he asked sarcastically.

"Um, now that you mention it," Buffy nodded her head towards Andrew.

Xander looked at the younger man sitting on the stone floor in disbelief, and then he knew who the culprit was. "Oh for the love of… Andy, she pulls a chunk out of the ceiling, blows all the power and you let her wear the lampshade like a trophy hat?"

"She was scared." Andrew defended her, standing up with Goorzar still in his arms. She had her long hairy arms around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder as she looked up at Xander with big guilty eyes.

"I don't care if she was peeing with fear down the front of your t-shirt. Do you know how much extra work this is gonna be? And why? If she wants to play monkey there's like a billion trees out there to swing around on – so why bring my electrical cables into it?"

"It was kinda my fault too." It was Faith speaking. He turned to where she'd just emerged from the basement, carrying one of his flashlights. "Me and the little furry freak were sorta sprung on each other and…" she gestured at the mess on the table.

"She's not a freak," Andrew protested. "And the fault was more than a little yours. You were the one chasing her around."

"Faith was just sitting there eating until the demon lost it and started bouncing around the kitchen." Buffy snapped at Andrew.

"Goorzie was just saying hello, Faith was the one acting aggressively." Andrew snapped back.

"Goorzie's idea of saying hello _is_ aggressive!"

Xander looked from one to the other as they argued. Andrew was defending his demon baby and Buffy was defending her demon girlfriend – although not in the literal sense this time. (Not that he could see that many differences between Buffy's ex literal-demon boyfriends and her current not-literal-demon girlfriend) – And neither of them was going to back down while they felt they were standing on the moral high ground.

On any other day it might have been amusing to watch, today he had too much to do and neither of them were helping. Even Goorzar – still in Andy's arms – looked like she was rolling her big orange eyes as her _daddy _and her _auntie Buffy _continued to argue over her

Xander found himself looking at Faith, surprised she wasn't arguing her own case.

She was staying out of it completely. Not even looking like she was listening as she used both hands to push the fallen ceiling to the edge of the table in as neat a pile as she could manage.

She noticed his attention. "I turned the main power off 'cause there were sparks falling."

"Okay; thanks." He went to get the dustpan and small brush from under the sink so he could clear the table.

She took it from him and did it herself; making quick work of it and dumping the crap into the garbage pan by the back door.

"Thanks," he said again, surprised.

"No problem." She shrugged and handed the dustpan and brush back. He didn't like her being so quiet. He didn't like her much full stop at the moment, but this quiet, helpful, pleasant Faith was just plain creepy.

"Well she shouldn't be inside if she doesn't know by now how to behave." Buffy was still going

"You're only saying that because you don't like her." Andy countered. "And it's not like she's destructive all the time. The last forty-eight hours have just left her a bit excitable – she had pixies hanging all over her on Saturday night, how would you like…?"

"So did I and I didn't like it at all, but I'm not the one swinging from the fixtures and fittings." Buffy shot back.

Faith glanced at him, raising an eyebrow at the mention of the pixies. Seeing the opportunity for more Pixie related fun in the future, Xander just shrugged like he didn't understand either.

"She's just a little highly strung still and Faith charging after her like that probably gave her flashbacks…"

"Okay, enough!" Xander held his hands up. "Andrew, you know how hyper Goorzie gets when she meets new people _and_ you knew she was still strung-out from the Pixie invasion, so what the hell were you thinking bringing her into the kitchen when Faith was around? Don't you think it might have been a better idea to introduce the two of them outside – where we have more than enough open space to go nuts in?"

"I wasn't thinking," Andrew muttered under his breath, hugging Goorzar a little tighter.

"And Buffy," Xander rounded on her now and she looked surprised. "You couldn't take two minutes out of screwing Faith's brains out to explain a few things? Like, how we have a pet demon so try not to slay her? Or, how we have a bunch of teenagers living here so don't walk around naked in the mornings?"

Buffy stared at him, not impressed, for a second or two, but then sheepishly she looked over to Faith. "I really wasn't thinking either."

He looked at Faith next, wanting to chew her out too. He had, in his opinion, a dozen reasons to be mad at her, a dozen reasons and more to not want her there with them at Sunset Camp, in Boudenver even. This wasn't even close to being one of them.

"Faith…" She was waiting to hear what he had to say, not looking like she was actually going to care what it was, but like she was trying to do the polite thing and listen anyway. "Stop being so… normal persony – it's freaking me out!"

She smirked at him, saying nothing.

He sank down in a chair and gave the hole in the ceiling, with the wires sticking out, a gloomy stare. The hole he could repair easy enough, but the electrics… He was as much of an electrician as he was a plumber. He glared at the little monster to blame and she hid her face in Andrew's shoulder, turning just enough to peek out at him and then quickly hiding again when she realised he was still glaring.

"Yeah, you can hide," he admonished the baby. "I still have the stair you broke Saturday night to fix yet and now this. I should take it out of your allowance."

"She doesn't really get an allowance." Andy made a good start on a hole for himself.

"Then it should come out of _your_ allowance."

Andrew laughed nervously, Xander didn't crack a smile. He was still pissed at him for being who he shared a bedroom with and therefore the one on hand when he decided to have his big gay kiss moment. The whole bedroom sharing arrangement thing was only meant to be temporary anyway, so how come six weeks later he was still being greeted by a weedy Spiderman every morning?

"I have to make lunch!" Andrew spun from Xander's glare and went to the refrigerator. He started to pull out the leftovers from the day before when he realised, "We don't have power. How can I cook when we have no electricity?" For some reason he was asking Buffy.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Light the fire and warm it up over that."

Xander rolled his eye. "Or you could have a cold lunch. Since when do you do a cooked lunch anyway?"

"I…just felt like it," Andy wasn't very convincing, but Xander didn't care.

He wasn't hungry yet and as soon as he knocked off for the day he was planning on heading to Barnies for the evening – he could eat there.

He wanted a beer now, now that he'd thought of it. He knew there was a six pack of Coors in the refrigerator and a couple of cans of Heineken. He could grab one now, no trouble, and take it on up with him to sip at while he worked.

It was tempting, but before he could decide whether or not it was a good idea, the magick room door opened. He wasn't the only person who looked up in surprise as Willow poked her head in.

"Hi guys." She looked a bit uneasy with everyone's attention. "What's going on?"

"Have you been in there this whole time?" Faith asked.

"Yeah. I was busy updating my herb database and then my laptop went poof." She was still mostly hidden by her door, only her head was visible to the people in the kitchen.

"You made it disappear?" Faith frowned.

"No, not that kind of poof. All the stuff on the screen just suddenly vanished, and I thought at first that one of the words I put in kinda mixed badly with other words I put in, and made it disappear. So I've been trying to get it back. Except, when I started reading through the FAQ's in the Wicca's Web and Windows Guide, I realised my reading light had gone out too."

"Your didn't hear all the bangs and crashes?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"I had my headphones on." She smiled suddenly. "I found some Dingoes Ate My Baby on itunes."

"Oh really?"

Xander looked sharply at Buffy, who had spoken like sarcasm was her first language.

"Um, yeah. I'd forgotten how good they are."

"You mean you'd forgotten how good Oz is?" Buffy continued.

Did Buffy know that Willow had kissed Oz? More to the point, had Willow kissed Oz? It had looked like it from where Xander had been standing, but he hadn't actually seen any actual kissage. He'd been prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, Buffy – who hadn't even been in the room – obviously wasn't.

"I don't know what you mean?" Willow's eyes darted from left to right as she tried to see who else was in the kitchen.

"Sure you do. Oz makes a guest appearance and all of a sudden you remember just how much you used to like him, how much he understands you like nobody else, how he makes you feel when he looks into your eyes…"

"Stop it! It's not like that." Willow came fully out of her magick room now, her hands out, imploring Buffy to stop. "I mean, it was exactly like that, but I didn't want it to be." She frowned. "How did you know anyway?"

"I didn't, I was just teasing," Buffy smiled, but there was still something in her voice that sounded recriminating. "I didn't expect to be right; I thought you were really into Kennedy."

"Oh Gaia," Willow covered her face with her hands. "I am! I didn't mean to let him kiss me. It just happened! How do I tell Kennedy? She's already jealous, how do I get her to believe it was just an accident?"

"First of all, I'd stay away from the word accident." It was Faith that offered the advice. She walked to the short counter that half separated the cooking side of the kitchen from the eating side and hopped onto it. Buffy was standing in front of it, just to her right. She gave Faith a quick glance, but didn't say anything. "You can't _accidentally_ kiss someone. You can fall on them so's both your mouths are touching, but that's not kissing and that's probably not what happened with you and Oz either."

"Can you keep your voice down?" Willow hissed.

"I'm not talking loud." Faith chuckled.

"I know, but keep it down further. Kennedy could be anywhere and slayers hear really well, as you would know, so…please?"

"I don't know where Kennedy is?" Buffy blurted. Xander glanced at her. She was licking her lips nervously. "Before anyone asks."

Andrew turned to give Buffy an odd look. "She's in the training field with the cadets and slayers."

"Oh yeah." Buffy mumbled. "I forgot, what with all the big news about _you kissing Oz!_"

Willow made a whimpery sound in the back of her throat and Xander glared at Buffy. What was her problem today? He didn't have to think too hard before he came up with the answer: Faith.

Buffy looked away uncomfortably.

"It'll be alright Will. Kenny will understand - you just made a mistake. You fluked… and its not like you're the only person ever… today, even." As Xander felt a cold unpleasant shiver squiggle down his spine he saw Andrew cringe lower over whatever cold dish he was preparing. Faith chuckled from the counter top. "Okay, I'm having a beer."

He went to the fridge to grab a cold can. One wouldn't hurt and it wasn't like he didn't deserve it after everything he'd been through since waking up that morning. He was impressed he hadn't stopped at Barnies for breakfast instead of The Mouth after his freakin' flukin' with Andy.

And he'd made progress with the burned bedroom already. Most of the scorched and smoke stained wallpaper was steamed off. The big red poppies, that Kennedy had never liked, now lay in tattered strips on the floor. The bed was mostly just a charred and soggy pile of wood and mattress, he'd stamped on it to get the pieces as small as possible and then rolled it all up in the burned through carpet. The resulting lump of destruction was too heavy for him to shift on his own, but he was hoping to rope a couple of the newbie slayers into carrying it to one of the outhouses later.

He popped the ring tab on the can and went to sit opposite Willow, who was so distressed over her indiscretion that, for once, she didn't judge him over his lunch time drinking.

"What do I say to her?" she asked again, wringing her hands together in her lap. "I never meant to mess this up."

Buffy was normally the one who stepped in on this kind of relationship thing. Once upon a time, she'd have had her arm around Willow, comforting her and telling her everything was going to be okay.

Right now she just looked awkward. She tried from afar though. "Maybe you should just keep it to yourself. After all, no one in this room is going to say anything because we all love you and don't want to see you and Kennedy break up over something as silly as just a little kiss that didn't mean anything and never would have happened if other certain people didn't suddenly happen to show up and confuse things and make you feel like, hey, maybe they should be more considerate of your feelings instead of carrying on all free-as-a-bird as if you were… okay… with it." Buffy trailed off, her awkwardness intensifying under their confused stares. "So all in favour of keeping it zipped?" she was the only one to hold her hand up.

Willow shook her head. "I can't. I have to tell her or the guilt will eat at me; I just don't know how to tell her without making her want to leave me."

"He kissed you, right?" Faith asked. She was eyeing Xander's beer and he was trying not to notice. Willow nodded. "Then tell her that. Tell her he kissed you and it took you by surprise and as soon as you realised what he was doing you told him to stop. You did tell him to stop, right?"

There was silence for a second and then Willow said, "Yeah, I did, just not quite as soon as I realised what he was doing. There might have been like a three minute delay on my stopping reactions."

"So you kissed him back?" Faith clarified. Willow nodded mutely. "Then, sorry Red, but my quick fix solutions ain't gonna get you through this one. If you kissed him back then you obviously still have something for him. Painting over the cracks and telling Ken it was all a big mistake is only going to make things right until you get the urge to kiss him again."

"I don't want to kiss him again." Willow stressed.

"Yeah and I bet you didn't want to kiss him before you kissed him earlier, but something in you obviously changed its mind when _he_ kissed you."

"Since when are you an expert on kissing?" Buffy asked irritably.

"You don't think I'm an expert kisser?" Faith teased. Sitting on the counter she was close enough to tap the side of her foot against the blonde's thigh.

Buffy pushed the foot away, blushing lightly. "You know that's not what I meant."

Faith shrugged. "I'm no expert, but I remember a time you kissed me when I didn't want you to, a couple actually."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Buffy asked her voice tight with embarrassment.

"Nothing, I just love seeing your cheeks get all red and rosy, B. Makes me wonder where else that heat might be spreading to." She winked at Buffy.

"Yeah, well… get used to wondering, because that's all you'll be doing for a long time." Buffy told her, and then turned to the rest of the kitchen. "And for the record, the times she's talking about – the me kissing her times – she never took much convincing to kiss me back, and anyway – she started it."

Buffy stormed from the kitchen, slamming the door behind her. Xander took a sip of his beer.

"And here I was thinking this was all about me." Willow joked weakly.

Faith slumped on the counter, looking at the recently slammed door for a beat. Taking a deep breath, she said. "B just summed up your problem nicely. When she kissed me, she was trying to convince me I should stay and make a go of it with her; and I wanted to punch her in the face for pushing me like that. Never did though." She smiled. "See, I'd get kinda preoccupied the second she did and forget that I wasn't supposed to be enjoying it." Sighing, she added. "Kissing her meant way more than any screw I ever had – too many damn feelings involved. Kissing's dangerous."

'_Thanks a lot,' _Xander thought, but kept it to himself. "So how does all of this help Willow?" he asked instead.

"Dunno; can I grab a beer?"

He wanted to say no on principal, but then he remembered how she'd turned the power off and cleared the table – mostly – it was still covered in a layer of dust. "Fine, but what you drink, you replace."

Not that anyone else stuck to that rule. She took one of the cans from the fridge and came back to sit next to Willow at the table as she opened it.

"Just tell Ken you screwed up and you're sorry." She took a long slow swallow of her beer, savouring it. "And if she's not happy, just take some clothes off and say it again."

"Is that what you're going to do with Buffy?" Willow didn't sound too pleased with the advice.

"Maybe, I dunno." Faith took another pull on her beer.

"You have a lot of making up to do there," Xander found himself saying. "I don't think the quick fix of taking your clothes off is going to be enough to make Buffy forgive you."

"Yeah, what gave that away?" Faith rolled her eyes. "If it was, me and B would be holdin' hands and skipping through a field of daisies right now."

"Skipping through daisies?" he chuckled. "You haven't been in love since you were like, twelve, have you?"

"I haven't been in love full stop." She finished her beer and crunched the can.

"Well, the daisy fields are mostly metaphorical." Willow smiled. "And the skipping. The holding hands is real though; and nice."

"Thanks for the info." Faith was smirking, but she seemed actually touched by Willow's return of advice.

Xander narrowed his eye as he looked at her. He'd been trying to figure out her game all day, but he couldn't. Was she not playing one or was she just clever enough to fool him? The second option was pretty likely, and that wasn't low self-esteem talking, but history.

"Lunch is served." Andrew announced from behind them, and placed a big plateful of pork salad down in front of Faith.

She grinned up at him as he handed her a knife and fork. "Enjoy Faith. It's not as fancy as the big welcome home meal Buffy prepared for you last week. But, well, we had to eat that last week or it would have spoiled; and no one knew if you were ever going to be coming home or not so there didn't seem a lot of point in saving it." He seemed to realise he was babbling, shutting up he grinned encouragingly at Faith. "Go on and tuck in before it gets cold …er."

Xander looked from the piled up plate of food, to Faith as she stuck the fork in and lifted a huge amount up to her mouth, to Willow who looked as put out as he felt.

"So where's our lunch?" he asked in disbelief. Seeing Faith eat was making him hungry.

"Um, I didn't think you'd have time to eat." Andrew said hesitantly. "And anyway I have to go get ready to go out."

He went quickly up the back stairs. Goorzar followed him.

"What do you mean you're going out? I thought you were gonna help me this afternoon?" Xander called after his retreating back, but Andrew disappeared without answering. "Typical. Goorzie causes me all the work and her parental guardian won't even make time to throw some cold cuts on a plate for me."

"What did Goorzie do now?" Willow asked. He pointed at the ceiling and she looked upwards, spotting the hole and the damaged cables still hanging from it. "Oh boy. That explains why the powers out. What made her do that?"

Faith held up her hand, the other was still forking food into her mouth at an alarming speed. She was eating like she hadn't in a month; if she didn't slow down she was going to choke on a lettuce leaf.

"What did Giles say?" Willow asked next.

Xander gave a tight smile. "He hasn't seen it yet, but I betcha he says 'shove a plastering utensil up Xander's arse and he'll do it as he goes!'"

Willow giggled, which hadn't been quite the sympathetic reaction he'd been hoping for, but that probably had more to do with his pronunciation of ass than his predicament.

"I guess I better call the electrician before he can ask me to." He got up to get the phone from the wall. "See what little victories he has me shooting for now?"

When they'd first moved in, Giles had insisted they get an electrician to give all the sockets and the lights a once over. If they were going to pretend to be a school, they had to have the official paperwork saying the building was up to code. The number for the electrician they'd used was still on the pin board next to the phone. Next to the plumber's number, although Xander had called him so many times in the past week, that he knew that guy's number by heart.

While he stood waiting for the line to be picked up, he opened the fridge to see what was in there food wise. Hmm, nothing appetising was dancing around waiting for him to notice it.

Beer it was then.


	8. Act 3:2

Buffy squeezed through the gap to the training field. She wasn't really that interested right now in how the cadets were doing, Giles and Kennedy had it covered, but she needed something to take her mind off of Faith and just walking around wasn't doing it. It was either this, or head down to Barnies, and that hadn't worked out so well the last time. Being a crying, gibbering wreck when Faith was a few thousand miles away was one thing, being one when she was just down the road and could wander in at any second – that was another, badder thing.

Her humiliation levels were already high enough. Why did Faith have to be so casual and jokey about them all the time?

It wasn't that Buffy didn't appreciate the casual, jokey side of life, she did, she thrived on it even, she just would rather do without it when it came to her and Faith's relationship. Because that was enough of a joke to begin with, without filling it with extra funnies.

She sat on the grass, well away from all the action but close enough to spot any mistakes Reece made. Kennedy was putting the cadets through the same routine she put herself and the new slayers through every morning. Her own Watcher had taught her the moves when she was like nine or something.

Buffy had done it a few times and it was good. Mostly focusing on improving stamina, balance and strike speed, it certainly got the heart pumping.

Kennedy was leading the show while Giles stood on the sidelines making notes. Occasionally he'd call out to either Naomi, Reece or Craig – who was holding his own at the back – an instruction that would enhance their techniques. It made Buffy smile nostalgically.

Dawn was also watching the training session, well mostly watching Reece's every move. Now and then she doodled on her notepad instead, probably hearts filled with Reece's name if she was anything like her big sister at that age.

Who was she trying to kid? If she had a notebook on her lap right now, the page would be covered in hearts bearing Faith's name. No! She gave her brain a bolstering shake. There would be no doodling of Faith's name, ever. Or at least not until she came across Faith doodling her name. So yeah, never.

Buffy watched Kennedy go through a series of shadow stakings, spinning first one way and then the other with some fancy footwork, and wondered what the hell she had been thinking earlier.

True, Kennedy was attractive, and there was something about her – a quality she found hot in Faith that she couldn't even put a name to, and Kennedy had it too. Maybe it was the mysterious allure of only ever letting people know your first name. Whatever it was, it had never made Buffy feel hot for _Kennedy_ before though.

No matter what it was, it wasn't enough to go around jumping the other slayer, not even after sparring. Sure the hormone craziness was a fact that slayers couldn't away from, but it usually took more than a little scuffle to get her in that state. Thank God, because it would be just too embarrassing if she got horny every time she trained with Giles or Xander.

No, there was only one conclusion, she was a _slut_. It was a hard truth to face, Buffy had always tried to keep a fairly tight rein on her morals, but there was just no denying it now. She'd slept with Faith five minutes after her arrival last night, when she should have just tossed her back out the bedroom window; she'd kissed her best friend's girlfriend this morning, and now she was staring at Naomi's long, tanned legs and little red shorts…

Buffy looked away from the eye-catching cadet with a groan.

How would Kennedy react when Willow told her about Oz? Would she flip out without listening to reason or put it into perspective with her own illicit kiss? It had meant nothing, _it was nothing_.

The younger slayer had admitted to being in love with Willow earlier, a fact her best friend apparently didn't know yet. Would it have made a difference if Willow had? – would that have been enough to provide the surge of self control when she'd needed it? Would Kennedy still feel the same way once she knew her girlfriend had cheated; once her fear was a reality?

Buffy pondered these questions with a heavy heart. She hadn't been there for Willow earlier, no support, no understanding, and she knew it was because of guilt. Guilt so bad she couldn't even let herself imagine how Willow was going to feel if she found out. Except it seemed her imagination wasn't waiting for permission on this one and Buffy could see those brilliant green eyes flashing with hurt and pain, and the quirky lips built for happy-faces turning down and trembling with disbelief.

"I think that will be enough for one day." Giles shout cut through Buffy's thoughts.

'_Oh thank God_,' Buffy thought, getting to her feet and dusting off the back of her shorts, happy to be distracted from the guilt trip.

"You've all done tremendously well and I imagine you shall feel some aches and pains in the morning, remember, that just means its working." Giles continued to call out cheerfully.

"Plenty of Bengay tonight, you'll be fine." Kennedy called. "I have a good idea of your abilities now so Giles and I will have a word and then assign Watchers to their most compatible Slayers in the morning. Tonight you five slayers are going out to patrol Boudenver alone."

"What about Faith?" Rona asked. "Won't she want to patrol tonight? She must be itching to do some dusting after months of being locked up."

Kennedy passed the question to Buffy with a sidelong glance.

"If Faith wants to join you, she can," Buffy told them mildly. Not that she was planning on mentioning that to Faith. "But its not like this place is over run with vampires. I'd be surprised if you get one staking between you tonight."

"So yeah, just the slayers are going out tonight, but by the end of the week, the cadets will be patrolling with their assigned slayer five nights a week. I'll draw up the rotas. So you all better go enjoy your afternoon off." Kennedy gave Dawn a conspiring smile as she walked swiftly past her.

Buffy caught up. "Want any help with the assignments?"

"No need, I think Giles has pretty much worked out who he wants with who; he only asked for my input to be polite."

"Okay," Buffy squeezed through the gap in the hedge after her. Giles hadn't asked her, not even to be polite. "Look about earlier…"

"It's okay," Kennedy interupted. "I'm gonna tell Willow that we kissed."

"What?" Buffy stopped walking.

Kennedy turned to face her. "I thought that's what you wanted?"

Buffy gave a distressed whimper.

"Tonight, I'm going to take her out. I'm going to explain how jealous I was feeling, tell her I did a really stupid thing because of it and that I'm really really sorry, and then I'm going to tell her I love her." Kennedy frowned at the grass. "I don't expect its going to be as smooth sailing as I'm hoping and I'm not quite sure how to tell her I love her yet. I mean, 'I kissed Buffy, but I love you' probably won't come out sounding the way I mean it too."

"Do you have to bring my name into it?"

"Yeah, I'm kinda hoping your betrayal will overshadow mine."

"Kennedy!"

"I'm joking. I'll say I kissed 'some girl', but if she asks for more, I'm not going to lie. After all the whole point of putting myself through this is so that I can be honest with her."

"Why are you and Wills so down on keeping secrets these days," Buffy huffed. "I thought secrets were supposed to be sexy."

"What's Willow keeping secrets about?" Kennedy looked worried.

"Um…nothing that I know of." Buffy shook her head innocently and started for the house again just as a battered grey van pulled up into the yard.

Buffy didn't recognise it, so she stopped to see who was visiting.

Oz jumped out of the driver's side, and even though Kennedy was a couple of feet behind her now, Buffy sensed her stiffening.

"Hi Oz," she gave him a brief smile. She didn't have any problem with him at all, but she couldn't deny he'd caused a major disruption in the household already whether he'd meant to or not. "Back again, I see."

"Buffy." He smiled back, completely ignoring Kennedy's glare. "Just dropping off Robin and I need to speak to Giles about Eric staying at mine tonight. His parents are happy enough, I think – they're pretty freaked out – but they want official sign off from someone they've met already."

"Can't say I blame them. Some strange man comes by and wants to invite their little boy for a sleepover." Kennedy smirked nastily. "If it were my son, I'd be suspicious too."

"He's seventeen, not that little." Oz shrugged.

"Yeah, but you still want to chain the boy up – that probably seems a little perverted in most people's..."

"Robin, hey!" Buffy enthusiastically greeted the tall black man who was now out of the van and standing with them. "How are you? Giles mentioned you were joining us out here. Have you settled in yet? Sorry about being stuck in the boy's dorm, we're way short on space at the moment."

"Buffy, hi. It's good to see you." Her ex-boss smiled warmly and came over to kiss her on the cheek. "Although, I'm kind of surprised you're so pleased to see me."

"Why?" Her pleasure at that moment came solely from the fact that he was standing between Kennedy and Oz, breaking up their snippy bickering; but generally she liked the well-spoken, many-muscled demon fighting son of a slayer very much. Sure they'd had their difference of opinion over Spike, but it wasn't like she couldn't understand his point of view on that one – it was just that his vendetta was a couple of years too late in coming.

"Well," he began. "I saw Faith earlier and she agreed to grab a pizza with me later, but Willow gave me the impression you two were an item now. I get the feeling she was just trying to warn me off again for my own safety…" he chuckled softly "…but if we're going to be working together – you and I – I'd rather not have anything like this between us. So..?"

Buffy's face had fallen as soon as he'd mentioned Faith. She'd pretty much forgotten all about their little tryst. Actually she hadn't forgotten about it all, but she had marked it as unimportant.

After all, she'd won, right? Faith loved her. Okay so she hadn't said it so many words yet, but she wouldn't have come back, would she, if she didn't? It was just a coincidence that Faith had gone missing for a week and then turned up the day before Robin did, right?

He was asking her permission, again. She could tell him to forget it, tell him he'd missed his chance, that he'd never had a chance in the first place and he was just making himself look like a fool for chasing the uncatchable slayer. Buffy should know, Faith had been making her look pretty foolish for months.

Or she could forget telling him anything and just punch him out, throw him in the back of Oz van and pay the occasional werewolf to drive him a few thousand miles away and leave him there.

She mustered a smile instead. "Hey, if guys want to go out for pizza together… Have fun!" she finished brittle-bright and walked off, shaking slightly.

Robin looked confused and was about to say something else, but Buffy just kept walking until she was out of sight around the side of the house.

"Why the hell didn't you tell him to back off?" Kennedy had followed her with out Buffy realising. Good, at least that meant she wasn't clawing Oz's eyes out. "He practically said he wouldn't make a move if you didn't want him too, so why didn't you tell him you didn't want him too?"

"Because," she hissed back. "If she wants to go out for pizza with him, then its because she wants to go out for pizza with him. So what's the point in me caring enough to stop them?"

"Uh, because you do care?" Kennedy reminded her.

"Not a good enough reason."

_Tbc..._


	9. Act 3:3

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews for the last part. Sorry for the long delay, things have just been manic for me recently. Anyway, this is a longish piece and I hope you enjoy it. As always all feedback is very welcome.

(I felt like an airline pilot when I was writing that intro - you know the voice they use, "And we are now cruising at 37 000 feet..." yeah that one.)

* * *

Xander crow-barred the last of the charred floorboards out and chucked them to the side of the room out of his way. The hole left was about five foot by five foot – the size and shape of Willow's bed – meaning for once luck was on his side and he'd bought more than enough new boards. He shone his flashlight into the hole he'd made, checking for any internal damage, but the area between the floor and the ceiling below looked clear. 

They'd gotten away lucky really. Half the house was timber; it could just as easily burned to the ground the day before. It was thanks to the Pixies quick thinking with the hose that it hadn't. Although the fact it was their fault in the beginning made that all kinds of void.

This part wouldn't take that long now.

The water damage done by the Pixies was superficial, it was mostly just personal items that had taken a drenching, and with the smoky wallpaper steamed from the walls the room hardly looked like the scene of a blazing fire.

It would still be a few days before Willow and Kennedy could move back in though. The painting alone would take a day if he didn't get any help, and with Andrew making himself scarce and the Pixies gone underground, that was looking likely.

Damn it, he wasn't a painter and decorator; he was a carpenter!

He looked at the freshly treated floorboards lying in a pile and smiled. For an hour or so at least he got to be just that, a guy working with his wood.

He smiled at his mental innuendo and, pulling off the heavy duty gloves and the rubber safety glasses he'd used while pulling up the burnt boards, he tossed them aside for the time being. Then, kneeling between the pile of boards and the hole, he set to work.

It only took as long as fitting the third tongue into the second groove, and he was in the groove himself. The beer he'd brought up with him was forgotten as he checked the stability of what he'd done so far and reached for the fourth board, comfortably focused on what he was doing.

That was why he jumped at the unexpected voice coming from the open door.

"Watcha doin'?" Faith was leaning on the door frame.

"Milking a goat. What are you doing? Other than following me around the house?"

She laughed. "I'm not following you. Everyone's either busy or scarce, so I came exploring."

"I'm busy too." He pointed out. The fourth board fit where he wanted it to perfectly, but it lost some of its pleasure with an audience, with this audience.

"I can see that." She came further into the room and squatted on the other side of the hole. "You need any help?"

"No thanks, I'm good." He told her through gritted teeth. Why wouldn't she just go and bother someone else? Like Buffy for instance, that was who she was supposed to be bothering.

"All that complaining about the amount of work you have, and when someone offers to help you turn 'em down?" She shook her head. "No wonder no one listens anymore."

The fifth board wouldn't fit into the groove properly and Xander knew whose fault that was. "Fine, what do you know about fitting floors?"

"Jack."

"So what? You were just planning on donning a swimsuit and handling my tool… handing me my tools," he corrected quickly. "**Not **the first thing I said."

She chuckled, looking down into the shallow hole instead of at him. "Truth is I'm not too sure what I'm supposed to be doing around here. I figured Giles would give me a job to do, something to earn this salary he was talking about, but he doesn't seem in a big hurry to do it."

"I thought you'd want to spend every minute with Buffy." He got the board in at last. "Make up for all that time you guys missed together."

She didn't answer straight away; when she did it was casually. "B's busy, I guess."

"But you do want to?" He asked. "I mean, you came back here 'cause you wanna be with her, right? Not just to screw with her some more."

His tone wasn't friendly, but hers was as she answered, "Wantin' something and makin' it work are two very different things, Xan, but if it happens I'm assuming some screwing is gonna be involved."

He looked up at her. She was smirking, but it looked kinda uncomfortable on her face. Like she was really regretting coming in here after all, but wasn't gonna make it easy on herself by walking away.

If she wasn't so full of bull, it might have been admirable.

"I think you know that's not the kind of screwing I meant, although you are equally notorious for both."

Faith laughed quietly. "Once upon a time I'd have considered that a compliment."

If she was waiting for him to ask 'What about now?' she'd be waiting a while. He slotted floor board number six into place with no trouble. He was glad he'd asked Ronnie at the lumber yard to cut these down for him now. He had the buzz saw to do it, but this way saved him a lot of time on prep.

"I'm going to screw with her mind," Faith protested, the silence getting to her. Xander looked up sharply. "I am! And she's going to screw with mine." She sighed with cynical amusement. "She already is. And from the way I hear it, it's supposed to happen. Are you really telling me you and Anya never drove each other crazy?"

"Of course we did. Being in love means being crazy most of the time. But it also means sticking around and being there when it gets crazy. Not taking off and leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces."

"Isn't that what you did when you…?" she bit her lip.

"What?" Xander stopped in the act of sliding another board into place to glare at her. With even more anger, he repeated: "What?"

"Nothing." She looked away at the pile of scorched wood by the wall.

"No, say what you were going to say." He insisted roughly.

"I wasn't saying nothing, man, just…" she glanced back at him and maybe it was the look in his eye that made her shrug slightly and carry on. "I heard from a few people, Anya included – you walked out on your wedding day. You're a bigger asshole than anyone ever thought you were." She paused when Xander smiled darkly. "Big freaking deal – the chick was still diggin' you long after so why get so pissy with me?"

Xander shook his head. When he got up from his kneeling position, his legs ached for a second. He went to the window sill to get his beer.

"You've never cared about anyone in your life so I wouldn't expect you to understand."

She was standing on his good side so he saw her flinch back a little out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't think you know me as well as you think you do." She replied.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Don't tell me that's what this is all about? You're still mad because I didn't make you my boy toy all those years ago?"

He turned to face her. "You _did_ make me a toy all those years ago, but that's **not** what this is about."

"Then why have you been giving me a hard time since I got here?" Faith asked, like she really didn't know. "I thought we were okay back in Sunnydale – I know we weren't exactly exchanging friendship bracelets or nothing, but you weren't giving me this much shit either."

"You hadn't just broken Buffy's heart then!" He knew straight away that he shouldn't have just shouted that. It wasn't his place to tell Buffy's business, but he'd started now. "Having to spend months watching her cry over the likes of you, kind of takes its toll on my friendliness. We'd all pretty much come around to the idea of you being here by the time your appeal started," he was lying, he was the only one who'd ever really voiced any dissent to the idea – and he hadn't come around by the appeal date, he'd just been resigned to fate. "But then you went and broke her heart all over again. In fact, you've got a hell of a nerve even showing your face around here after that supreme stunt of selfishness."

"Angel said you'd be a dick about it." she sneered. Standing, she left the room without another word.

Xander threw his empty beer can at the opposite wall in frustration and watched it bounce off and drop to the floorboards.

"Well that made me feel a ton better," he sighed, scooping the can back up again and chucking it onto the pile of burnt crap next to the wall.

He wanted another beer now, the first two having whetted his taste buds so to speak. They were downstairs though and that was not somewhere he was going for a while.

It was probably best to let the dust settle before he ran into Faith again, and he didn't want to run into Buffy in case she was pissed at him for telling Faith stuff he shouldn't have. And he didn't want to run into _Giles_ and face the question of when he could fix the new hole in the kitchen ceiling, or whatever task the Watcher felt was the highest priority right that minute. All in all it was safer just to stay in the bedroom and keep working.

So kneeling back down, he picked up the next board and tried not to think about how the beers in the fridge were calling his name like a flock of baby seagulls.

A half hour later Xander was singing quietly to himself as he slotted in the last new floorboard: "Place it down, wiggle it around, ninety-nine pieces of wood in the floor..."

"Looks good."

"Oz, hey. Get all the wolfy stuff sorted out?"

"I think so. His parents coped by knocking him out last night just as the moon came up."

"With a sleepy-head dart?" Xander asked wiping his tools off with a soft cloth first, he put them back in his bag.

"No, with an iron poker. When he started to change they kind of… freaked out, expecting a repeat of the night before I guess and so they whacked him. Now I don't know who's more scared – him or them." Oz explained as he looked around the room. "He's gonna stay at mine tonight – I have a cage."

"Won't you be using it?"

"I won't change tonight."

"Oh right. I forgot, you're like Teen Wolf now. Everyone's favourite cuddly werewolf." It was time to start painting. The ceiling needed doing first – he hated painting ceilings and now he had two to do – but he didn't know if he could be bothered with it today. "And speaking of cuddling – what's this I hear about you getting smoochy with Will this morning."

Oz didn't say anything. When Xander turned from looking through his pots of paint, he half expected to find the shorter guy gone, but he was still standing there.

"She told you?" he asked, frowning ever so slightly.

"Well, sort of, but you forget I walked in on it. I knew something was going on, something always is when Willow moves that fast away from someone."

"You would know." Oz said mildly.

"And now so do you." Xander nodded. "Dude, there is nothing I'd like better than to see the two of you back together… _**if**_Kennedy wasn't around. But she is… and I'm sorry man, but I don't think Willow has any plans to break up with her. She's pretty upset by what happened this morning."

"Upset?" Oz asked, coming to stand next to Xander by the paint. "I didn't mean to upset her. I thought… This morning, it wasn't just me, she was there with me. I could feel it."

"And I believe you," Xander shrugged. "But, you know, there are times when two people kiss and it feels right, until you realise that its wrong, oh so so wrong, and so you stop, but by then its too late, right? You've already kissed and the damage is done and all's that left is to gargle mouthwash until the cows come home." Xander rambled; half to himself as he pried open the lid of a can of white emulsion.

"Yeah." Oz said, like he understood completely. "Except I don't want to gargle."

The quiet that followed the simple sentence gave Xander a deep sense of foreboding, and he almost didn't want to ask, but… If he could take Faith on and come out the other side with all the same body parts he went into the verbal battle with, then luck was obviously on his side. And if he was lucky, he'd be wrong.

"You want her back, don't you?"

"I walked away once without a fight, Xan, and it was the hardest..." Oz looked through the wall. He may have been a man of few words, but he wasn't often lost for them – Xander found himself listening when he should have been shutting him down flat. "It felt like the right thing to do then, it doesn't now."

"Okay, Oz, I'm gonna deliver the cold splash of reason here," Xander stopped stirring the white paint with a six inch wooden stake and stood to face the other man squarely. "Willow is gay, she's a les-b-ian," he pronounced the word slowly. "Believe me; I spent the better part of a year constantly hearing about it. And you're a lot of things, my friend, but female isn't one of them."

"She didn't seem too gay when she kissed me earlier."

Xander exhaled, loudly, "And I didn't seem too straight earlier, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna suddenly get a stylin' new wardrobe and learn how to shake my thang on the dance floor."

Oz ignored that; which was probably just as well 'cause Xander didn't want to have to explain. "Then if I'm wrong, it won't take long to find out and no harm done."

'_Now why don't I believe that?_' Xander wondered as he poured the white emulsion into his brand new paint tray.

* * *

"Here at last!" Andrew sing-songed from the back seat. 

Dawn looked out of the passenger window excitedly as Reece carefully pulled the car into a parking space by the waterfront. In truth, Lakeside was about as exciting as its name was creative, but after so many boring weeks of spreading her time between school, the camp and Boudenver – this was a big afternoon out!

She'd been down here a total of one time. The week they'd moved in she'd come down with Xander and Willow to check it out. They'd all agreed it was nice, but that they'd probably spend most of their time off in Cleveland – the novelty of living so close to the big city was appealing to all of them after growing up in small town Sunnydale.

Somehow that had never happened. Dawn hadn't even been to Cleveland since they'd passed through looking for directions two months ago. She didn't have her license yet and the guys were always either too busy or too miserable to drive her in. She and Kennedy had talked about a night out a couple of weeks back, but Buffy had put the kabooshski on that one – apparently Dawn was too young to go clubbing in the city without her big sister and because her big sister didn't want to go clubbing in the city – neither could she.

It hadn't been fair, and Dawn had been prepared to stage a walk-out protest and head off anyway, but Kennedy had ended up being busy with Willow, and Dawn had ended up spending the evening playing Go Fish with Andrew.

"So, this is it?" Reece asked, looking out of the windows himself as he turned the engine off.

Giles had said they could use the car, because no one had been available to give them a ride. Reece had his UK driving license and so Giles had handed over the keys with about a million instructions on what to, and not to, do while driving. He probably wouldn't have allowed any of them to drive at all if they'd been going any where more adventurous than Lakeside, but as it was they'd seen about six cars on their way, and two of those had been stationary.

"It's not much, is it?" Craig was sat in the back with Andrew, also looking around.

Dawn felt herself colour up a little with embarrassment. She'd asked Reece out on a date – well not really, but it still was a date, sort of, hopefully – and then she'd brought him here! To this dinky little resort on the edge of Lake Eerie, when he was probably used to cool places like London.

"It's lame, I know," she said, feeling stupid for her excitement earlier. "I mean I know its lame and I come from Sunnydale, which was about a square foot bigger than here," she joked weakly. "Not exactly the cosmopolitan environment you're used to."

Reece chuckled. "Until I joined the academy at fourteen, I lived in a farm village about a square foot _smaller_ than this. One road, one post office, one pub. My nanny had to drive twenty miles a day just to take me to school and back."

"And I live on a council estate in North London: three stabbings, two burned out cars and an armed robbery a week." Craig said dispassionately as he climbed out of the back of the car. "If that's what you mean when you say cosmopolitan, I'm happy to have a little lame for a change."

"Oh, okay." Dawn smiled a little, feeling a bit better about it.

Reece grinned at her – making her feel a lot better about it – and got out of the car too.

She looked over her shoulder at Andrew as Reece and Craig both slammed their doors shut. "You're quiet."

"I'm nervous," he admitted quietly. "I was only really asking Craig to come along so he wouldn't feel left out, but now it feels like a… a date; and I've never been on one before."

Dawn took a second to digest the fact that Andrew liked Craig.

It was no secret that Craig had a crush on Andrew – the English boy might have been keeping himself hidden for the past week, but his crush had been right out in the open. Andrew had seemed pretty tense with the interest. Now she realised the tension had come from a different source to the one she thought.

For a second she thought about teasing him mercilessly, but that would have to wait, there were bigger things to deal with.

"I'm nervous too," she admitted back. "I wanted to ask Reece on a date and then he invited himself, so I don't know if it's a date or not. And I've never been on one before either – not really, not without magic jackets involved – so I don't know how to tell if it's real or if I'm just going to make a big fool of myself."

They sat there with strained smiles, but when it was clear neither of them were knowledgeable enough in this subject to give the other advice, Dawn opened the passenger door and climbed out.

"Dawn, hey Dawn!"

She turned at the sound of Fen's shout and relaxed as she saw her school friend running over, the various buckles, chains and bracelets she always wore sounding almost like exotic wind chimes.

"Sunny D, you're late!" Fen scolded, out of breath from the running. She swept some long blonde hair from her face as she panted. "Even later than the late you said you were going to be. I've been sitting outside the ice cream place for twenty minutes on my own. I'm not naturally stick thin like you; I can't be left unattended outside an ice cream place for that long..." She spotted Reece standing on the other side of the car. "And hello."

Dawn felt her smile drop a little. Fen was obviously smitten at first sight – hardly surprising, Reece was gorgeous! – But what if he liked her too? It wasn't like she knew how he felt about her, and as she'd said to Andrew the date thing had never been made clear. If he thought they were just out as friends, there was nothing to stop him from making a move on Fen.

"Hello." Reece flashed her a bright smile and came around the front of the car to shake her hand politely. "Dawn's friend, I presume. I'm Reece, and it's my fault Dawn's late. I wanted to take a shower after training."

"Oh, he has an accent," Fen made a 'going weak at the knees' face at Dawn.

"Yeah, I noticed." Dawn tried to keep the smile on her face with difficulty. "English."

"I can tell," Fen grinned at her before asking Reece. "So what were you training for? Soccer?"

"Martial arts." Reece explained, flashing Fen another smile before winking subtly at Dawn.

His winking at her would have been a more thrilling event if he hadn't been flirting with her friend at the time.

"Fen, this is Andrew, who I was telling you about." Dawn beckoned him and Craig over. They'd been standing on the other side of the car just watching.

Reluctantly, Andrew wandered round, with Craig trailing behind looking puzzled.

Oops, she'd forgotten their whole being on a date thing. Still, she had invited Andrew for Fen; it wasn't her fault he'd decided to invite the guy crushing on him too.

"Oh, cool." Fen looked at Andrew, giving him the once over and obviously not finding him as appealing as Reece – duh! – "How's it going?"

"Good question?" he muttered, before giving her the brightest smile he could muster. "But it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Fenella. Dawn's told me much about you."

"But she didn't tell you Fenella's my last name; that's kinda weird. I normally start with names when I'm telling people much about someone."

Andrew blushed, "I, ah, might have forgotten that small detail."

Fen grinned, "Fen's fine anyway. And your boyfriend, do you remember his name?"

Andrew started spluttering, but Craig just calmly held out his own hand. "Craig, and we're just good friends – although I'll admit that's not my choice." He winked at Fen, who grinned back. "Do you have a first name that goes in front of Fenella?"

"Not one I let people call me."

Dawn knew it, but only because the teachers at school didn't care what Fen preferred to be called. She wouldn't embarrass her friend now though.

"Shall we get in line for tickets?" Dawn gestured across the road to the cinema.

It was a small place, with only one screen, and it showed about six different movies a day – each one starting half an hour after the last one ended. Dawn didn't even know what was showing when yet, but she didn't want to dawdle on awkward introductions for too long. Buffy hadn't given her a curfew in the end, but she knew if she was too late back, there would be consequences– and getting grounded in front of Reece would be the total suck.

There were no dissents, so the five of them crossed the street together. Fen pulled on Dawn's arm until they were lagging behind a little.

"You brought me two gay guys? I tell you we need to spice this afternoon up and you bring me the rainbow twins? Are you always this evil or did I offend you somehow?"

"I didn't know," Dawn whispered back. "I mean, I only invited Andrew, and I didn't know he was into Craig at the time. I'm not even sure _he_ knew until he kissed Xander this morning."

"You're pseudo-bro is gay too? Damn, why is it always the good looking ones?"

"Xander's not gay!"

They reached the doors as Reece pulled one open and stood back to let them pass. Andrew and Craig went through first without giving him a look; Fen gave him a flirty smile as she waltzed through just ahead of Dawn.

Dawn rolled her eyes as she passed him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." He walked in behind her, staying by her side as they waited in line. "So what do we all want to see?"

It turned out choosing a movie was easy if only because of the limited choice. The new release Craig, Andrew and Fen wanted to watch was age restricted and not showing until late evening. Blood, guts and violence wasn't Dawn's cup of tea. She'd seen way too much of the real thing to enjoy the glorified cinematic version. She chose the latest Jim Cary comedy, Reece backed up her choice and as it was a much earlier showing – they won.

Reece was ahead of her in the line. While he paid, she dug through her little bag for her purse. By the time she'd found it – full of her latest research assistant money – he'd finished and was smiling at her.

"What is it?" she asked timidly, lost for a second in his dreamy eyes.

"It's a ticket," he said, holding it up so that she could see the long rectangle of card he was trying to hand her. "You give it to the usher at the door, and he lets you into the pictures."

"Oh, thanks, I mean, uh, thanks." She took the ticket from him. "How much do I owe you?" She fiddled with trying to get her purse open.

"Not a thing. It's a thank you, for choosing the same film as me. If you'd sided with the rest of them, I'd have been stuck watching two hours of Action-Man killing unbelievable alien monsters with a tiny little machine gun."

"I thought all guys liked action films with the macho vests and macho-er machine guns?" Dawn grinned putting her purse away.

"The classics sure," he smiled that heart-winning smile again. "And I'm not exactly on the Dead Poet's end of the movie goer spectrum either. Think somewhere between Die Hard and Sixth Sense and that's where my tastes lie."

"Oookay," she shook her head slightly at him.

"You didn't have to pay, I was going to pay." Andrew was saying from behind them. "You're on holiday, and I asked you, so if anyone should be paying, it should be me."

"I got to the booth first," Craig chuckled, waving away the money Andrew was trying to give him.

"So take the money now."

"No."

"But I want to… to do something nice for you." Andrew said quietly, aware there were lots of strangers around them.

"You already did. You asked me to come with you." Craig reminded him. "And I'm going to run out of money soon enough so make the most of me being able to pay for stuff, alright?"

"Fine." Andrew tried to look sulky as he stuffed the money back into his pant pocket.

"So I'm the only one paying for my own ticket?" Fen demanded, looking at it with disgust. "God, I've never felt more alone." She wailed dramatically.

"Actually, I paid for mine, and Reece paid for his, so… you're not the only one." Craig grinned at her.

"Oh thanks, that helps," she told him with mock sincerity.

Dawn smiled sympathetically, feeling bad about letting her friend down. Not that she'd thought for a moment that Fen would have actually liked Andrew that way anyway. Reece had bought her ticket though, with absolutely no prompting, and it was kind of hard to feel too bad after that.

"Guys, we still have some time until the film starts. What do you want to do?" she asked, leading the way back outside.

"Ice cream?" Fen suggested in cheerful frustration.

* * *

Willow sat miserably at the kitchen table, unable to go back to what she'd been doing due to the lack of power. Minutes before she'd had to pretend to be busy copying something from a spell book when Oz had passed though the kitchen. 

He'd tried to make conversation, but she'd apologised a lot and said she couldn't stop right then, and could they talk later. He'd agreed with a shrug and a smile and she'd pointed him in the direction of Xander.

See, he was so understanding, even when she was lying through her teeth to him.

Scrunching the paper she'd copied the wart-growing curse on to, she muttered a mild incantation and the paper dissolved into fine white ash. Best not to leave that kind of thing lying around, especially not with all the tension that seemed to be part of the family dynamic the last couple of days.

Kennedy was far less understanding of Willow's need to work. Not that she thought her girl should be chained to the kitchen sink or anything – or if she did, that hadn't come up in conversation yet – but she begrudged her working on stuff when Kennedy wanted to spend time with her – which was all the time that the young slayer wasn't slaying or training to slay.

The attention was nice, but a little suffocating at times. Willow could live with that. After Tara had… after Tara, she'd gotten used to being alone, and she'd thought at the time she'd be alone forever.

Now she wasn't – and to need an adjustment period was perfectly natural. And there were times when Kennedy was out slaying, or training with Buffy in the barn, that Willow got a little jealous and wished she was curled up in bed with her, or slumped next to her on the couch watching television, instead.

The difference was, Willow might feel that little stab of resentment that something else was coming before her, but she accepted it and watched TV or went to bed alone.

Kennedy, not so much. Kennedy was happy to sit silently and watch while Willow practised her chants and control exercises, or tried out new – completely white – spells, or read the three hundred year old textbooks on Magick Lore that Althanea had been kind enough to fed-ex to Sunset camp to help with Willow's understanding of her craft.

It was sweet, really it was, but it was also really distracting. Having her extremely sexy slayer-girlfriend sitting within arms reach while she was invoking ancient _naturally fertile_ energies… Even if Kennedy was as good as gold and as quiet as a mouse, well sometimes Willow's concentration had a habit of not being very concentrate-y – at least, not on what is was supposed to be.

And here she was for once with nothing to do, and her sexy, attentive girlfriend was nowhere in sight. Willow hadn't seen her all morning in fact, not since she'd stomped out in a temper because Oz had turned up.

Willow winced again, she'd been so mad at Kennedy for jumping to conclusions and not trusting her, and it turned out she had every reason not to. She'd never meant for it to go like this, she really had only wanted to catch up with her old friend. She still did, but was that possible now?

Was Faith right? Was she going to get the urge to kiss him again every time he was around? No! He was upstairs now and she had no urge to go up there and kiss him, and she hadn't when he'd walked through earlier. It had just been a throwback to her previous life, the life before she realised her true sexuality.

"Because I am gay, right?" she asked the empty kitchen quietly.

She thought about all of the women she'd been attracted too, not just Tara and Kennedy, but all of them – going all the way back to Cordelia in fifth grade, just before the rich girl had turned into a complete b.i.t..c.h and long before Willow ever realised it was sexual attraction she was feeling and not just a desire to be the other girl's 'special' friend.

Then she thought about the guys she'd been attracted to. It took two seconds, one for each name that came to her. Frowning, she tried to remember if there had been anyone else other than Xander and Oz. There had been guys at school she thought were cute, but none that she'd ever imagined dating. Mostly when she'd noticed the guys in school, she'd thought of who might be the most suitable to take Buffy's mind off of Angel.

Her own boy-interests had been pretty simple, she'd been in love with Xander for as long as she could remember right up until she'd met Oz in her junior year, and then she'd thought for a long time that she'd be spending the rest of her life with the guitar playing werewolf.

Until Tara had come along and shown her what she'd been missing all those years.

"Yeah, I'm gay now, definitely," she promised the kitchen. "This morning was just, like I said, a brain-blip or something."

She smiled, because that meant she could still spend time with Oz. If there was no danger of her blipping again, there was no reason to ruin their resurging friendship. After all, they still had a lot of catching up to do, and Willow wanted to go see his new place and meet Ralf the dog. And if he was helping them out with Eric the werecub, her avoiding him might make things strained for everyone.

So she would just carry on as normal, pretend that what happened never happened, and never let their lips get that close again.

"Your boy is an asshole." Faith announced as she stomped in from the kitchen. Gesturing at a bowl of fruit on the counter, she asked. "Mind if I?"

"I don't have a boy." Willow squeaked quickly, her eyes guiltily darting around. "No boys, that's me."

"I'm talking about Xander, not Oz," Faith explained, irritably grabbing an apple even though Willow had never answered. "Take it that means you still haven't talked to Kennedy."

Willow's heart sank as she realised the one flaw in her perfect plan to stay friends with Oz. If her girlfriend knew that he'd kissed her, it didn't matter how much Willow trusted herself, Kennedy would never accept it.

Maybe it would be better if she didn't know after all? Like Buffy had suggested, she could just keep mom. What Kennedy didn't know couldn't upset her, or the rest of the house into the bargain. And it wasn't like she was trying to hide her transgression from her girlfriend so that she could keep transgressing, she just wanted to keep her happy and avoid all the unpleasantness that would come with such an admission.

Surely the important thing here was to make it up to Kennedy, not to make it worse, and telling Kennedy through some guilt-ridden impulse wasn't fair to anyone.

She turned to Faith who was crunching through a red apple, oblivious to Willow's torment. "I don't think I'm going to tell her, at least not today. Oh, not because I want to have a secret affair," she said quickly, reading Faith's sudden frown. "I just want to spend a little time with Oz, as friends, and if Kennedy knows… you know, she's going to think its more than it is – which it isn't, and I don't want to upset her, so if you could not say anything...?"

"Hey, s'your funeral," Faith shrugged as she threw her apple core in the trash can on top of the pieces of ceiling.

"No one's going to die over it."

"Really? Prison's full of jealous ex's, Willow. Throw a slayer and werewolf into the love triangle and you've got yourself a perfect true life story for the National Enquirer."

"What do you know about relationships anyway?" Willow muttered under her breath.

"Nothing, but I know when feelings get involved, it gets messy, and they both have feelings coming out of their asses for you. Add the feelings you got for the both of them…" Faith left the sentence hanging.

Willow looked down at the table. Was Faith right? What were the odds?

"You don't know what you're talking about. Maybe that's how things go in your life Faith, but Kennedy and Oz and I are mature adults and we'll deal with things that way, and there won't be any mess." She told the other woman curtly, before heading through the basement door under the stairs. Getting Kennedy's laundry done was a step into the good books, hopefully.

Faith chuckled after her, before sighing, and taking Willow's empty seat at the table. Now where the hell had Buffy disappeared to? It was getting pretty obvious the blonde was deliberately avoiding her.

"Love leads to feelings and feelings equal a whole lot of messy crap," she murmured to herself. "That much I'm learning pretty quick, thanks Red."

_(More soon.)_


	10. Act 3:4

Hey everyone. Thanks for the reviews for the last part. I'm trying to post a little more regularly now, which is why I'm updating in smaller chunks than usual. I'm vowing to post at least once a week from now on instead of once a month, more often if I have it finished.

Obviously hearing the thoughts of the people reading this is always a big motivator too and will hopefully help me keep my vows.

* * *

They were sitting along the low wall separating the sidewalk from the boardwalk – a wide wooden walkway with the lake lapping beneath – eating their cones quickly before it was time to head in and see the movie. They'd already had a sundae each inside, but Fen had insisted they try the cones too – Andrew for one was glad she had, even though he was going to be sick if he tried to eat popcorn on top of all the ice cream.

"It's a bit like home this," Craig observed as he crunched his way through the cone Andrew had bought for him.

"Yes, lots of great lakes in North London," Reece rolled his eyes and Dawn giggled.

"I din't mean outside my front door, ya pillock. I was talking about down the coast. With the pier and the fun fair over there." He gestured down the shore.

"I suppose," Reece conceded. "Like a mini-Brighton without the beach."

"There is a beach," Fen defended her town. "It's small, but it has sand and waves – sort of."

"Well if it has sand, its one up on Brighton." Craig said, finishing his cone and licking his fingers.

"What's Brighton?" Andrew asked.

"Oh, you'd _love_ Brighton." Reece assured him with a wink.

"I would?" Why was Reece winking at him; he didn't like Reece winking at him. Craig was giving Reece a good glare, adding to Andrew's apprehension about the wink.

"Ignore him," Craig said, patting Andrew's shoulder companionably. "Let's go inside, I wanta get good seats."

"What was that about?" Andrew heard Dawn ask as they all crossed the un-busy road to the movie theatre.

"Nothing," he heard Reece reply with amusement. "Just trying to wind Rayne up. The bugger's more resistant than he used to be."

Andrew didn't know what to make of that, so he kept quiet, crossing the road at Craig's side. Fen was on the other side of him and so when she stopped dead in the middle of the road and pointed towards the cinema entrance, he stopped too, looking to where she was pointing with a worried frown. Normally when the company he kept had this reaction – it was to a demon of some kind.

He couldn't see a demon, but from the knot of people on the opposite side of the road, one did seem to stand out: a young man about Dawn's age with bronzed skin and jet black hair. At first Andrew thought it was his ethnicity that made him stand apart from the crowd, but on second thoughts, it was simply that the boy – while in the crowd – clearly wasn't a part of the crowd. He might have had the same destination in mind and be moving in the flow of human traffic at the same speed as everyone else, but he was very definitely on his own.

"Seth." Fen suddenly called out.

"Oh no," Dawn groaned from behind him.

No one answered Fen's call.

"Come on, let's go say hi." Fen turned to Dawn, who didn't look happy with the idea.

"Say hi to who?" Craig asked.

"Seth?" Reece hazarded a guess, before smiling at Dawn. "A friend of yours?"

"More like her saviour." Fen corrected him.

"Fen!" Dawn hissed. "We go to school with him." She explained to Reece.

Andrew was still watching the Eastern-looking guy in the queue. He didn't even know if it was Seth or not, but there was something about him that drew the eye. If he knew Andrew was staring at him, he didn't let on. His emerald green eyes – extra striking when set in that handsome tanned face stared straight ahead at the back of the person in front of him.

He seemed just as unaware of the conversation Fen and Dawn were having just a few feet away from him.

"Well I'm saying hello," Fen countered Dawn's lack of enthusiasm and walked up to the kid that had captured Andrew's attention.

Ha, he'd been right! That meant this was the boy who'd saved Dawn from the creepo teacher her first week in school. He knew Buffy had been wanting to meet him – to learn his story – and that Dawn had plotted many ways to make sure that never happened. Here was another opportunity to get in Buffy's good books. It was almost as if he'd eaten Scooby flakes that morning without realising.

"Yeah, besides, he looks like he's on his own." Andrew backed Fen up. "It would mean mucho karmic points if we invite him to join us."

"What?" Dawn and Craig asked at the same time, neither of them sounded impressed.

"Uh yeah." He scampered after Fen quickly, catching up with her as she drew level in the queue with Seth.

"Hey!" She greeted her classmate cheerfully.

For a second it looked like he wasn't even going to acknowledge they were there, but then with a soft sigh, he turned his head lazily towards them. He regarded Andrew with those cool green eyes briefly – not briefly enough in his book – before giving them a flash of a smile.

"Hello Fen. How are you?" His accent was smooth, cultured and way more exotic than Reece's snobby English.

"Me? I'm good, I'm always good, and on days with no school, I'm great." Fen chattered on and Seth seemed to be listening only out of politeness.

Andrew decided to introduce himself, seeing as Fen wasn't going to.

"Hi, I'm Andrew. Andrew Wells." He winced inside as he realised he'd just accidentally done his James Bond impression again, albeit with his own name, but still stuck out his hand for a formal how do you do. "I'm friends with Dawn Summers."

Seth turned that piercing gaze on him again for a long moment before he spoke, reaching out to shake hands as he did so. "Really? Well that explains why you've been sat over there with her for ten minutes and why she's now standing behind you."

Andrew looked behind him quickly to see the others had joined him and Fen in the middle of the queue.

Dawn mustered a smile, "Hey Sethos – catching a movie?"

The guy's lips curled into a slow, genuine smile and for the first time since Andrew had seen him, his eyes didn't look cold and distant. "No, I just come here for the milk duds."

Dawn rolled her eyes, "Right, stupid question, huh?"

Sethos looked puzzled.

"So as you're here alone, and we're an odd number, we were wondering if you wanted to join us?" Fen asked.

"You were?" His sharp gaze went from Fen to Dawn and he looked not just surprised but shocked by the invitation.

"Well it was more Fen's idea," Dawn shrugged, not quite looking at him. "But you can if you want, not that you need my permission or anything, I just meant it's up to you."

"Way to make a bloke feel wanted – Dawn style," Craig quipped from off to the side. "Alright mate." He greeted amiably when those green eyes darted to him. "I'm Craig."

Sethos nodded to him, but said nothing.

"Look, we already have our tickets and we're just holding up the line," Reece placed his hand gently on Dawn's back as he spoke only to her. "Maybe we should get inside and find our seats before the trailers start."

"You want to see the trailers?" Dawn beamed. Reece shrugged back as if it was crazy she even had to ask. "Okay."

Dawn and Reece left the queue and Sethos' stared after them, unblinking.

"So are you going to come and find us when you get inside?" Fen asked him, starting to back away. "Come on Seth, we'll save you a seat."

Sethos was staring at the back of the person in front of him again. "No thank you."

"Are you sure?" Fen checked.

"Yes."

She shrugged and followed the route Dawn and Reece had taken to the doors. Craig started following her,

Andrew hesitated. "I don't mind standing in the line with you; that way we can find them together and you won't look like an idiot stumbling up and down the aisles in the dark on your own."

"I can see perfectly well in the dark thank you."

"Um okay." Andrew could see that Craig had stopped by the doors, waiting for him to catch up. The excitement fluttered in his tummy again and he had already forgotten about the strange classmate of Dawn's, when he heard him call out softly.

"Andrew Wells, Dawn's English friend is not all that he seems. He is up to something," Sethos gave a pondering shake of his head. "But I do not know what. You would do well to watch him."

Andrew – awed by the boy's awesome judgement of character – nodded solemnly. "It's okay, we're already aware of the danger and taking steps to counteract it even as we speak." He thought about that. "Actually we're not, because I'm out here with you," he shrugged sheepishly. "Gotta go, bye."

Passing Craig on his way through the door, he accidentally linked arms with the boy in his hurry to catch up with Dawn and Reece in the dark movie theatre. Craig happily let himself be towed after, a surprised smile on his face at the gesture.

* * *

Alex Nichol's was driving back towards Boudenver when he decided to call in and say hi to his new buddy. He'd been over to Mantua, picking up his big amp from a friend, and had to go right by the camp anyway. He hadn't seen much of Xander recently and popping in to invite him to the bar for the big night wouldn't take long.

It was only as he was pulling onto Sunset Lane that he remembered Xander had asked him to call before social visits; apparently the old guy, Mr Giles, was worried he'd put the young students off of their research, make them uncomfortable or something.

At first Alex had been suspicious and all the more determined to visit whenever he felt like it, but then Xander had explained. A lot of the students were troubled, had problems and issues back home. They were kids that hadn't had the chance to reach their full potential until this project came along. A lot of them weren't used to the law being the good guys.

Alex had done some volunteer work before he'd joined the sheriff's department, helping to run an after school program in Cleveland for disadvantaged teenagers. Most of the kids were only a few years younger than him and he'd made some good friends, or so he thought. The first time he'd turned up in his uniform, not one of them had wanted to know him – to this day only a handful of the kids he'd hung out with there would willingly be seen speaking to him.

This experience made him think twice about asserting his authority. He didn't care about the research, but if the girls here were getting a better shot at a decent future because of this camp, he didn't want to ruin that for them.

That didn't help him now though. It was a little late to call when he was already moving slowly down the drive. A thought occurred to him: Xander had said only social visits had to be announced.

With a hairy smile, he pulled his light-globe from the glove compartment, flicked the switch on the side, reached up through his open window and stuck it on to the roof of his jeep. Blue light now rebounded off of the trees around him. Just to make sure it seemed as official as could be, he turned the siren on as well.

* * *

Faith choked on her second apple as her most hated noise in the world wafted through an open kitchen window.

"What the hell?" Shooting to her feet, the chair legs scraped angrily on the polished stone.

Had Deb Devenrowe changed her mind? Had someone higher up found out that Deb Devenrowe was keeping quiet because she fancied her chances at a little between the sheets action with her hotter than hell parolee?

The chilling, jarring sound was close and Faith knew they were pretty much all alone out here. The police were definitely coming to the house!

Did she run? Hide? Shave her head and fake an accent? If she'd had clippers to hand and an extra couple of minutes to spare, she might have gone for that last option – hair loss was temporary, her next stay inside was going to be for life.

Buffy appeared in the back door, breathless, looking like she'd run all the way here from wherever she'd been hiding. She stopped when she saw Faith standing there panicked.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

"Not a damn thing." Faith shot back, pissed at the automatic accusation.

She went over her morning, just to make sure she hadn't accidentally broken the law. Talked to Giles, talked to Willow, talked to Xander…

"I pissed Xander off earlier, maybe this is him getting his own back?"

Buffy didn't even dignify that with an answer.

Faith shrugged. "Well other than that, I've been as good as gold, B. Haven't even left the house all morning."

"Maybe Devenrowe wasn't so enamoured with your seduction routine after all?" Buffy suggested tightly.

"Maybe," Faith admitted and then the sentence sunk in. "You were listening to that?" she asked softly.

It was hard to tell how many squad cars might be coming up the lane, the sirens bounced off of the trees and seemed to be coming from all sides of the house, but Buffy heard the soft question.

She gave a rueful smirk as she looked out of the door, "Well, you said you could say anything in front of me."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have been saying stuff like that if I'd known…" Faith tried to explain. If she was about to be arrested, then this might be her last chance to explain, ever. Buffy was never going to give her another chance after blowing this one so royally.

"So you'd have lied to protect my feelings?" Buffy asked, turning to face her. "That's… actually sweeter than I gave you credit for Faith, but right now, we've got bigger things to deal with."

Faith stepped back, surprised by the barbed words. She was about to tell the blonde to go to hell, but the next words out of Buffy's mouth, surprised her even more.

"What the hell are you waiting for? Run!"

"Excuse me?" Faith blinked at her.

"I said, run. Go on!" Buffy grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the back door. "Lose yourself in the woods until their gone, and then we can come up with some kind of plan to…"

"You've gone crazy!" Faith pulled away from Buffy's hand and stepped back out of the way of another grab. "I'm not running now, not after everything."

"Faith!" Buffy began urgently, just as the big blue and white police jeep came around the side of the house and screeched to a stop in the yard. Hazel eyes glistened with held-back tears, but she calmly looked Faith in the eye. "I guess that's my answer then; we're really over."

"We're what?" Faith looked from Buffy to the police jeep.

Now the moment was here she was suffering the most powerful urge to run she'd ever felt in her entire life. She couldn't go back. She couldn't be locked up twenty-four hours a day again, not after the night before. She'd go psycho in a week. She'd rip the place apart. She'd stain the already stained walls with blood smashed from bitches like Lolitta just to ease her appetite for destruction…

The siren cut off, leaving deafening silence in its wake. The blue flashing light stopped a moment later.

Her body was in flight mode already, every muscle bunched and ready to fire. She knew with no doubt, even at only half strength, she could be in the cover of the trees before the cop she could see through the windshield had a chance to give chase. Providing he didn't shoot her in the back, she had a good shot at staying free.

Except Buffy's quietly spoken words were keeping her routed to the spot. What did she mean they were over? In Faith's eyes they hadn't even begun yet, but Buffy thought they were already over? Was it because of Double D? Did Buffy really think she could be interested in anyone but her right now, after everything?

"B…?" she began, but the cop was out of the jeep and she found herself looking at him instead, wondering if he'd be lenient enough to give her ten minutes to explain to Buffy before he dragged her away.

"Hey Buffy!" The cop called over.

The cop was big, with a lot of thick brown hair and a bristly beard to go with. And just how did he come to be on first name terms Buffy?

Buffy slipped possessively in front of Faith. "Alex."

She was all familiar with him_ too_!

"Who called you?" Buffy asked coolly, as the uniformed man-mountain came over.

"Uh?" The cop – Alex – didn't seem to know. Meaning someone in the house had called in an anonymous tip off. Freakin' cowards! "Uh, Xander called me." He finally admitted, looking uncomfortable with Buffy's chilly reception.

"I freakin' knew it!" Faith exploded. "That asshole! He's happy to hand the heat out, but... Asshole!" she repeated.

She couldn't believe she was going back to jail just because she'd tried to make amends with Xander frickin' Harris. Of all the lame ass people to ruin her chance at freedom!

"Xander wouldn't of…" Buffy was looking at the cop like she'd just found out her labradoodle puppy had gone on a savage mauling spree. It made Faith feel sick. Buffy turned those imploring eyes to her. "Faith, Xander wouldn't! There's been some mistake…" she didn't sound so sure of herself now.

"The only mistake is me thinking I could come here and make it work. Hate to tell you B, but your fuzzy-friends were never gonna let this work." Faith was furious, and the cop just standing there looking at her wasn't easing her fury.

She walked closer to him, holding her wrists up so that he could handcuff her. "Well come on then! Don't just stand there; do your freakin' job if you're going to!"

"My job?" Alex looked from the angry woman's wrists to Buffy, who was just standing there looking mortified.

'_By God, Xander was understating.'_ Alex thought.

The woman was clearly unstable and his turning up like this had unhinged her. No wonder Buffy looked so distraught; she probably thought they'd lost this kid for good; all thanks to him.

One thing was for sure, he was taking Mr Giles' requests a little more seriously in future.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you, Miss. That wasn't my intention." He tried to placate her.

"You didn't mean to upset me? You come screeching down here, deafening everyone in a ten mile radius, and you didn't think that might upset me?" Faith yelled at him. "S'bad enough you're taking me in at all, I mean its not like I hurt anyone on the way here, but you gotta announce it to the whole God damn world too! You couldn't just come quietly?"

"I thought the sirens would make it more official, so this wasn't mistaken for a social call." Alex explained to Buffy. The intensity of the crazy woman was making him sweat beneath his crisp uniform.

Buffy suddenly whirled to the crazy woman – Alex wanted to warn her against sudden moves, but Buffy was pretty intense all on her own.

"He was giving you a chance to escape, you idiot!" She shouted. "That's why he made such a noisy entrance; so we'd hear him coming, but you can never just trust me, can you?"

"This isn't a movie B, cops don't do that!"

Okay, now he had no idea what he'd barged in on. Why was this woman trying to escape and who from exactly?

"Alex would, he's not like other cops, he's a nice guy."

Alex beamed beneath his beard – his secret crush on Xander's friend experiencing a burst of rapid growth at her praise – but he felt compelled to say, "I wasn't giving anyone a chance to escape."

"See?" Faith pointed at him. "There's your nice guy cop, just like all the rest."

"Okay, I'm obviously missing a big part of whatever is going on here," Alex started. He didn't know whether Buffy or the other woman could even hear him over their arguing. "So if you could just give Xander a message to…"

"Al?"

The deputy sheriff sighed with relief as he heard his friend call out of an upstairs window. "Xander, I'm sorry. If I'd known I was gonna cause this kind of commotion I'd have called from the end of the lane." He called up to him.

"Wait there, I'll be right down."

When he tuned back in to the argument, Buffy seemed to have the upper hand, "What did you think was going to happen Faith? Everything was going to be rosy when you finally decided to show your face?"

"I didn't think, okay?"

"Does it seem like its okay?" Buffy shot back.

'_Faith_' thought Alex, _'I recognise that name.'_

Xander came though the back door, white paint splatters on the shoulders of his teal t-shirt, already assessing the situation and holding his hands high. "Hey ladies, remember you're ladies for a second and then tell me what's going on."

The stranger – _Faith_ – ran towards Xander, her fist cocked. "You frickin bastard!"

Alex reacted quickly, lunging forwards to restrain her attack.

Buffy was faster, and grabbed Faith by the collar of her sweater, pulling her backwards. "No!"

"B, get the hell off me!"

Xander stopped advancing a few feet away. "Why am I not surprised?" he muttered, pissed off. Louder he asked, "Buffy, why are you traumatising our friend, the deputy?"

Buffy moved in front of Faith again, the brunette still looked ready for a fight, but she seemed even more interested in what Buffy was going to say next.

"Xander, tell me you didn't call Alex?" Buffy asked softly.

Xander shrugged. "I didn't call Alex."

"So you didn't call the sheriff's department to rat her out for last week, say to get her back for whatever she did to upset you earlier?" Buffy checked.

Hurt flashed in Xander's eyes, but he disguised it quickly with a grim look. "No."

"He's lying," said Faith immediately, shaking her head.

"Actually he's not," Alex came to his friend's defence, better late than never.

The whole thing had blown up so quickly, and he wasn't sure why Xander was getting the blame for him turning up like this, but he wasn't going to stand there and let him take it. He walked in front of the two women, and his sheer muscular bulk meant that they probably couldn't even see Xander now.

"No one called me." He continued. "I lied about that, because I didn't want Mr Giles to know I was flouting his request, stopping by unannounced. It's also why I used the siren to announce I was coming – not to give anyone a chance to escape or to arrest you for anything you might have done last week – which I'm hoping, whatever it was, didn't happen around here and therefore isn't in my jurisdiction. However, I am now inclined to arrest you for disrespecting the sheriff's department and for the attempted assault on Mr Harris just now."

Buffy's eyes went wide, Faith's went narrow; and behind him, he heard Xander chuckle.

Alex smirked. "Or you could apologise and we can just start over."

Buffy nudged Faith with her elbow, and when Faith continued to just stare at him, she nudged her harder.

With a roll of her eyes, the new woman gave in. "Fine I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions; for all I know you're a nice guy even if you are a cop."

"Actually I didn't mean to me," Alex stepped aside so that Faith had a clear view of Xander. "I meant the guy you accused of snitching on you and then tried to hit in the face."

"You gotta be kidding me?" Faith shook her head at the very idea. "And if I don't apologise to him you're gonna arrest me?"

"I'm afraid you'll leave me no choice." Alex lied, hoping she'd just do it. If he took this woman in for wanting to hit his friend, his dad would give him the 'Abuse of Power' speech again.

Faith looked at Buffy, begging her to find a way out of this.

"Just apologise and get it over and done with already," Buffy sighed impatiently, folding her arms.

"Sorry."

"No _I'm sorry_, were you talking to me?" Xander began his voice full of dark sarcasm. "Only you were looking at the ground so I didn't really feel the remorse I'm sure you were trying to convey."

"Okay, well feel this," Faith brushed past Alex to stand in front of Xander, her heart hammering painfully inside her chest. "I'm sorry okay. I'm sorry for _every shitty_ _thing_ I ever put you through. I'm sorry I used you, I'm sorry I didn't take you up on your offer of friendship when you were the only one in the world willing to make that offer, I'm sorry I sided against you _and_ I'm sorry I tried to kill you."

Her gaze hadn't wavered from Xander's, but his one eye was still steely, un-nerving, and giving nothing away of his emotions. Was he believing this? Did he get that she meant it? Or did he think this was just another line of bullshit?

She took a deep breath and kept going. "I'm sorry I keep leaving you to pick up the pieces of my mess and I'm sorry I ever thought you'd be asshole enough to pull a dirty trick like turning me in behind my back, but most of all – I'm sorry I didn't have the guts to say all this an hour ago because then I wouldn't be having to say it in front of complete stranger who's probably gonna arrest me now for just confessing to attempted murder."

"Well it didn't happen in Boudenver, so I don't think he has the authority," Xander half smiled.

"Right." She nodded.

"So is that all sorted now?" Buffy asked, she still sounded irritated. "No one's getting arrested?"

"No, I'm off duty anyway," Alex admitted. "I just haven't had a chance to get home and change yet."

"What?" Buffy and Faith shouted together.

"Ooh, bad move Al!" Xander winced in sympathy for him.

"Hella," Faith agreed. "B, I can't remember, does assaulting a deputy sheriff still carry the same sentence if the deputy sheriff isn't on duty?"

"Let's not find out, okay?" Buffy smirked. "Tempting as it may be. So what _are_ you doing here Deputy Nichols?"

"I came to invite Xander down to Barnies tonight," Alex explained.

"I didn't think you needed an invite," Buffy turned her smirk Xander's way. "Or have you just been crashing every night since we've been here.

"Very funny, and for your information, due to circumstances outside my control – but totally within yours—" he looked at Faith "—and yours; I haven't been to Barnies for over a week." He motioned for Alex to follow him inside. "Come on in and have a beer."

Buffy and Faith followed too, and Xander sighed as he handed around the Coors. He had no problem sharing with Alex, but…

"You know how Willow insists I buy the beer out of my own money instead of putting it on the house shop because I'm the only one who ever drinks them?" he held the bottle just out of Buffy's easy reach as he spoke to her.

"Uh huh," she could take the bottle, open it and pour the contents over his head before he hardly knew what she was doing, but they had a guest, so she humoured him.

"Guess who's going twosies with me from now on?"

"Faith?" she guessed.

"Threesies then," he smiled, holding up three painted dabbed fingers.

"Hey every beer I drink is one less for your liver to stress over." Buffy pointed out, snatching the bottle from his hand. "You should be paying me for the health service."

"So Al?" Xander looked to his local friend for a change of subject.

"Oh, right," Alex set his drink on the kitchen table. "Every month we have a disco at Barnies, it's become kind of a community event, and the tourists love it over the summer months. We missed the end of season last month 'cause my big amp blew up the day before and we had to cancel, but I got her in the jeep right now, so we're all ready to rock and roll tonight."

"A disco?" Faith asked dubiously.

"Yeah. So I know you said, Xander, that Barnies is a little quieter than you're used to, and I thought maybe that's why you've not been coming down so much, but tonight'll be different." Alex promised.

"Actually the quiet was one of the big attractions." Xander admitted. "Spend twenty-four hours living here and you'd see why."

"Well a disco could be cool," Buffy smiled. "Is that invite open to all of us Alex?"

"Uh…I…" Taken aback by her interest, he hesitated for a moment, but then the answer exploded from him in a torrent of words. "Uh, yeah, of course Buffy, I mean, I didn't think it would be your thing, you know, not sophisticated enough or something, but you're always welcome at mine, I mean, my bar – Barnies, that is." He stopped talking as abruptly as he'd started, feeling like an idiot and pleased his big beard hid his school boy blush – he was twenty-five for goodness sake, too old for crushes on beautiful strangers. Seeing the brunette's eyes narrow in his direction he remembered too late that there was something between her and Buffy. "In fact bring everyone, the more the merrier."

"Disco and cool in the same sentence," Faith drawled. "There's something no one's heard since the seventies."

"Well you can't go anyway," Buffy reminded her, a little coldly – okay a lot coldly, but she was masking it well – "You're going out for pizza with Robin, remember?"

"No." Faith said truthfully.

"So, what time is your party starting?" Buffy asked Alex, ignoring Faith completely. "And will you be busy behind the bar all night or will you get a chance to dance too?"

"Um, music kicks off about six," Alex nodded. "Food gets laid out soon after, and uh yeah, I can dance, I mean I can get a chance to. I'll have a couple of people tending bar with me and my cousin handles the deejaying, so I usually get to have a pretty relaxed night myself."

"Okay, sounds fun." Buffy beamed at him. "Well, this is my first date in a _long_ time, so I'm gonna start getting ready now. See you tonight." She touched Alex's elbow as she brushed lightly past him and walked through to the living room.

Alex was grinning, but once the swing door swung shut, he realised something. "Did she say date?"

"She did." Faith said quietly.

Handing her half full bottle to Xander, she left the kitchen through the back door.


	11. Act 3:5

Big thanks to the people who are still reviewing, this is proving to be a long episode eh?

* * *

Kennedy started to bite her nails as she watched the outside door to the basement, but her nails were already as short as was possible and so she was just nibbling on skin. It was a stupid nervous habit anyway, and one she hadn't indulged in since her pre-teens.

She didn't remember feeling as nervous as this since her pre-teens.

She'd never told someone she was in love with them before, and now she really wished she'd had the revelation while in Willow's arms instead of Buffy's. That way she would have said it spontaneously, it would have come out sounding more sincere, more romantic and it would have saved her this pre-declaration angst.

"Okay, here goes," she muttered to herself, but didn't move from the bench.

She knew Willow was definitely inside the basement, the low rumble of the washing machine could be heard coming through the long narrow ground level windows. This was silly; she wasn't even planning on making the big statement yet. All she wanted to do was ask Willow out on a date! They'd been together for months now, suggesting a quiet drink at Barnies so they could talk really shouldn't have been this hard.

'_Maybe it's so hard because it's not meant to be,' _a little voice inside her head asked. _'Maybe that's why it was easier to kiss Buffy this morning than it is to go talk with your girlfriend.'_

"And maybe I need to go get this over with, before I start listening to myself," she surmised, wiping her palms on her shorts.

She saw Faith coming out of the kitchen. Obviously Alex's visit wasn't to do with the runaway slayer after all – Kennedy had heard the sirens, watched Buffy and Faith's heated exchange from afar, but had been to on edge with her own issues to go see what was going on.

She had hardly spoken to Faith since she'd arrived, not even said hello really. She thought about calling over now to ask the unflappable slayer how she remained so calm around these people all the time. Even this morning, standing bare naked in the kitchen and with a bunch of pervy cadets gawping her – she'd looked in total control.

Faith stood just outside the door for a second, looking this way and that, and Kennedy saw her face. All thoughts of asking for advice swiftly fled. All thoughts of willingly being in the same zip code as Faith also fled. The girl looked mad. Kennedy stayed quiet and just watched her elder stomp away.

Whew, lucky escape! Speaking to Willow suddenly didn't seem as scary as sitting here like a duck waiting for Faith to come and have a pop.

The outside entrance to the basement was on the far side of the house and Kennedy could see into Giles office as she approached. The Watcher was on the phone, sitting at his desk. His large dark green leather chair with the high wings was turned to the side and she could see his profile as he spoke. His conversation floated through the open window and what she heard made her smile.

Giles was talking to a woman by the sounds of it, and by talking, she meant flirting.

'_Life in the old dog yet,'_ she thought, as she took a deep breath and opened the basement door.

"Hello." She called into the dimly lit room.

It was mostly full of empty boxes and packing crates from what Giles had shipped over from England and what the girls had brought with them. Plenty of junk had already been down here when they moved in and more had accumulated in the past couple of months.

It was loud, much louder than what she had assumed from outside. The washer and the drier were battling with each other to see who could make the most noise, and Willow had found a little portable radio, tuned to a country station.

Rounding a pillar with a bright yellow, half inflated dinghy strapped to it, she saw Willow – ironing a pair of Kennedy's good pants and humming along to the music.

Kennedy smiled, pleased that her worse nightmare hadn't just come true – namely finding Oz down here keeping Willow company while she washed his clothes. Now the worst hadn't come to pass, she felt easier.

"Willow."

Willow heard this time and turned around quick to see who it was. "Oh you startled me" she squeaked. "I forgot that door was even there. What are you doing down here? I thought you were busy with the cadets." She was talking really quickly.

Kennedy walked over to the laundry corner and turned down the radio a little. "All done. I said I'd go grab a burger with Rona and Vi, but first I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh, what?" Willow went back to what she was doing.

"Why's it so loud in here?" Kennedy asked, stalling for… well, she didn't know what for, but she knew she was doing it.

"Generator." Willow pointed to a dusty, reverberating thing in the far corner. "We have a power problem."

"Oh. Are you okay doing all this?" Kennedy looked at the washer then the drier, both were ancient models that had been there when they arrived, and they took their time doing their jobs. A pile of clothes – both hers and Willow's – were waiting for their go in the washer and an even bigger pile was still waiting to be ironed.

"Yep," Willow assured her, nodding. "It's nice, calming. Was that all you wanted to ask me?"

"Do you want me to stay and help? Vi and Rona can always go into Boudenver without me?" Kennedy offered.

"It's okay, you go and enjoy yourself," Willow said brightly. Looking up sharply she suddenly asked, "Oh, unless you meant, like, you wanna have the…"

"No! No, that's not what I meant, I promise," Kennedy quickly reassured her, not wanting to have that argument again. "I just meant help with the getting our clothes clean."

"Well then no, it's not really a two person job," Willow shrugged. "Although maybe when you get back from your burger you can carry it all up to Faith's bedroom for me. You can probably do it in half as many trips."

"Sure." Kennedy nodded. "Will, there was something else I wanted to ask you."

"I'm listening," Willow said, but she didn't look up from sliding the black pants onto a hanger.

"I know we don't go on dates much, at least not since we left LA." Kennedy tried not to fidget as she spoke. "Everything always seems so hectic all the time and with patrolling six nights out of every seven I haven't been the most thrilling girlfriend just lately…"

Willow shrugged. "It's okay, I understand. Buffy had the same problem in high school, and its not like we haven't been on any dates recently, we went for that picnic last week?"

"Yeah, and it was nice – very nice – but one date in a couple of months isn't good enough. And we're obviously suffering for it," Kennedy said quietly but clearly, looking Willow dead in the eye.

Willow flinched slightly and looked down at the ironing board. "It's just been a weird few days," she muttered.

"Well let's draw a line under it." Suggested Kennedy, taking Willow's hand where it rested on the brightly patterned board. "Come out with me tonight? Nothing fancy, just a quiet drink at Barnies, just the two of us, to talk… please?"

Willow didn't answer right away, Kennedy's hearted started sinking, thinking it was already too late.

"Yeah okay," Willow's resigned voice didn't do much to reassure Kennedy, but then she squeezed slayer's hand firmly and gave her a smile. "A drink and some us time sounds good."

"Great, is half seven okay? That way we'll have the whole evening to ourselves." Willow nodded and Kennedy leaned in to kiss her quickly on the lips. There was a basket of neatly ironed clothes beside them and Kennedy grabbed it. "I'll take these now."

"Thanks sweetie."

Willow smiled until Kennedy left the basement, this time going up the stairs to the kitchen. As soon as the door closed again the smile dropped, in fact her whole face did.

The date idea was nice and all, but if Kennedy started being all nice to her, the guilt was going to become unbearable. Willow at least wanted a few days of Kennedy continuing to be a brat so that she could justify her terrible actions to herself a little better.

And what exactly did Kennedy want to speak so seriously about anyway?

* * *

Faith stomped across the lawn towards the woods with half a mind to just keep going. Her and Buffy weren't going anywhere, no one else wanted her here, and the locals were all asses, so what exactly was the point of sticking around?

There was a gap in the long hedge she was walking by, through it her eye caught a glimpse of one reason to stay around – one reason to stay around _tonight _anyway. He was a nice guy, he had a hell of a lot of stamina and she already knew he liked her – enough to tell Buffy they were going out that night.

Fine, if he was already telling people he could handle her, who was she to turn down a little fun.

She slipped through the gap in the hedge and Robin spotted her immediately. "Faith," he smiled warmly.

There were three girls in the field with him, none of them could be older than sixteen, and they were all going at thin air freestyle with a mixture of weapons. Or they had been. As soon as she appeared, they all stopped and pinged to attention.

"Whoa, what's this about?" she asked Robin, eyeing the girls suspiciously.

Robin grinned. "They're the first of the resident slayers and I think they've heard of you."

"Yeah, well I ain't no one special, make 'em stop eyeballing me." It was creepy, the way they were all looking at her, a blend of awe and fear on their little fresh faces.

Robin shrugged his shoulders. "Somehow I don't think they'll listen to me."

Faith dug deep within herself, trying to find whatever she'd discovered inside that had given her the strength to play leader for a while back in Sunnydale.

"Okay chicas let's get the intros over with. I'm Faith, but I'm guessing you know that already. And you guys are…" She pointed at a girl with really black hair.

"Miranda," came the almost inaudible response.

She pointed at the next girl in line, the one with short reddish hair.

"Cici."

"With a name like that I bet you and B get along great," Faith smirked at her and pointed to the last girl.

"Alison." She was the only one to look Faith dead in the eye, a smirk of her own showing through, although there was a healthy amount of admiration there too.

"Okay, now we all know each other, get your butts back training." She snapped at them.

Alison started to swing her battle axe again and Cici made some tentative thrusts with her spear. Miranda continued to stare at Faith, starry-eyed, a slight smile on her face as her broad sword hung limp in her hands.

Faith glared at her. "You speak English right?"

"Oh sorry, yes." Miranda mumbled, and started swinging the sword, nearly taking Cici's ear off.

"And the fate of the whole world could depend on her some day," Faith muttered.

"It's only been a few months; I think most of them are still finding their feet." Robin grinned. "So, are we still on for pizza tonight?"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"Don't worry I'm ain't bailing on ya." Even though she didn't remember making the arrangements in the first place. "It's just, there's this disco thing at the local bar and everyone's going; and I was wondering if you wanted to check that out instead. It's just… it's my first night back with the fam—" she enthused with full on sarcastic emphasis "—and I kinda feel I should try and be part of the gang. I'm pretty sure it'll blow up in my face in the first hour but…" she shrugged.

"At least you'll have tried," he finished for her. "That's fine with me Faith."

Somehow she'd known he would approve.

* * *

The film was half over. The popcorn they'd shared was gone, the big greasy tub now on the floor between their seats, when Dawn took a deep shaky breath and slowly slid her hand across the armrests.

Reece didn't even flinch as her fingertips timidly touched the back of his warm hand and she had to stop herself from doing anything as lame as looking to see if he'd even noticed.

She missed at least three minutes of fast paced dialogue as she counted her heartbeats, the pounding in her head making her feel dizzy as she forced her hand to relax over Reece's; and then, she nearly pulled it away again in shock as he turned his hand to hold hers, casually entwining their fingers.

She sighed as quietly as possible, _'Totally worth all the nervous energy!'_

* * *

Buffy stopped just outside the living room. Frozen in something like fear, she whispered, "Did I just say _date_?"

Closing her eyes, she rubbed her forehead in alarm. "I did, I said _date_!"

What had possessed her to say, of all things, that?

Okay she knew it was the half-formed – half baked – plan that was unfurling at the back of her seething, jealous brain that had pushed those words out of her mouth.

'_Now what did I do_?' she wondered as she went up the front stairs, mindful of the missing step. '_The words are out there. If I go back into the kitchen and tell Alex I made a mistake I'll just embarrass the both of us_.'

She'd never meant for Alex to be her revenge date. In truth she hadn't had anyone in mind when the evil plan had started brewing, just a faceless shadowy figure that was, obviously, better than Faith in every possible way. Alex would have been the last person she chose though, and not simply because she wasn't attracted to him, but because he always seemed like such a big softy – like a giant bearded Care bear – despite his profession, and using him like that just seemed cruel.

"Should have thought of that before I blurted the word date out." She sank down on the edge of her bed.

It was all very well being wise after the event, wasn't it? But it didn't matter how wise she felt now, she still had to find something date-worthy for tonight from her paltry collection of outfits. She did have a few nice clothes now – short skirts, skimpy tops, that kind of thing – but they'd been bought to be worn for Faith, not Alex.

As she sat there morosely mulling it over, she figured she had two options: she could flesh out her half-baked plan and embrace it, or she could fake an illness and stay home.

If she faked an illness and stayed home, everyone would know that was what she was doing – everyone, but mostly Faith. Everyone else might think she was doing the honourable thing – which would be the case – Faith would think she was chickening out, and would also know for sure that Buffy had only said it in the first place because she was jealous.

She bit her lip, tapped her foot on the carpet, fidgeted uncomfortably and then went to her closet.

She'd already had her passport to Slutville stamped earlier in the day; she might as well go ahead and take the citizenship test.

And Alex was a nice guy. Tall, muscle-y, probably handsome underneath all that hair… she wrinkled her nose a little. Beards just didn't do it for her. Did that make her shallow? It was personality that counted, right? So to dismiss someone on facial hair alone had to be pretty shallow.

Tonight she would learn to love it, well, like it anyway, and tomorrow she would have grown as a person, which meant that something good would have come from this little charade.

And if she and Faith were truly over, then getting back on the dating horse – even with a guy she was pretty sure would never be more than a friend – was not a bad thing. It was a good thing, a moving on with a smile thing, and a thing she should have done a good few months ago.

She wouldn't have been feeling so bad, she decided, as she went to her little en suite bathroom and started to run a bath, if Faith had at least wanted to talk about them, but she'd made no effort to at all – not last night and not today.

Buffy knew she hadn't made it easy, but she hadn't made it easy on purpose! Faith was the one who kept pushing her away the more Buffy tried to pull them together. She'd really hoped that if she backed off, Faith would care enough to try and fix them herself – _or at least want to talk about fixing them!_

Instead, she'd made plans to go out with Robin as soon as he arrived; and that was even worse than coming on to her little sister and trying to seduce her parole officer… hang on, maybe not worse, they were all pretty bad and gave Buffy the message loud and clear.

Faith wasn't even bothering to confront her about arranging a date with Alex; that showed just how casual she felt about them. Buffy had really come to believe that that had just been an act back in Sunnydale – now she realised that she'd just been fooling herself all along.

And the strangest thing? She wasn't even surprised that Faith was acting this way. The only surprising thing was that Buffy had really thought that she _might not_ act this way. That this time something beautiful would come of the connection they shared, instead of the usual bitterness and bloodshed.

"And then the ozone layer will grow back and vampires will lead anti-violence rallies," she muttered to herself as she undressed and got in the tub of hot water.

Maybe she was being too harsh on Faith. After all, the other woman had never promised her anything. In fact she'd made a big point of not promising her anything. Going so far as to say she didn't even know if she'd stick around after her release. Yet here she was, a week later than she was supposed to be, maybe, but here all the same. And perhaps that was enough.

The idea of the two of them having a relationship was laughable anyway, so maybe they were better off just giving up right now. Being housemates was going to be challenge enough without adding more pressure to it. Or maybe Buffy could adopt Faith's casual attitude and they could just be housemates who had sex occasionally, or a lot, Buffy was easy.

At least she certainly seemed to be today.

Groaning at the confused mess of her mind, she sank down beneath the water, trying to wash it all away.

* * *

It was only when everyone else was busy getting ready for the Deputy's disco that Faith realised she still hadn't had a shower, and she didn't have anything to wear. This made her sit up in front of the television – there was nothing on worth watching anyway – while she tried to decide what to do.

She couldn't go out stinkin' and there was no way in hell she was going on a date wearing B's cutesy sweats; not even on a date with Wood who was about as interesting to her right now as the television.

Standing up, she wondered who to hit up for some clothes.

Giles was the physically closest person – he was getting ready in his own bedroom which was on the first floor next to his office. She didn't want to be stuck wearing tweed though, so he was out as a donor.

Dawn's stuff would fit her, and she wasn't the worst dresser in the world – the girl actually had some style – but she had a lot of ground to make up with Buffy's little sis and borrowing her clothes without asking wasn't a good way to start.

Most of Willow and Kennedy's clothes were still waiting to be washed.

Faith smiled as she realised there was only one person left to ask.

Turning the television off with the remote, she bounded up the front stairs. It took her a minute of wandering around the gloomy upper hall, getting more confused with every bend in the corridor before she finally felt like she was outside the right door.

She knocked gently, and then a little harder. There was no answer. Buffy had probably finished getting ready ages ago and was downstairs in the kitchen. Getting in, getting a shower and getting some half decent clothes was Faith's priority now, and if she could do it all before Buffy realised that would be great.

Opening the door, Faith stood on the threshold as she looked around, details from the night before rushing back to her. The bed was made now, and her own clothes were no longer on the floor or hanging from plants around the room. She couldn't see them anywhere, not that she cared.

Closing the door she came through, she spotted the door to the bathroom – the one she'd left through earlier, giving Dawn one hell of a surprise – and then went to the third door in the room.

"Be a closet!" she muttered to herself as she pulled open the door.

A rack of clothes greeted her. Not nearly as much choice as she expected, but most things looked brand new. She grabbed the sexiest stuff she could spot – a blue denim mini skirt and a white halter neck number – and closed the door again. Buffy would never even know she'd been there, well not until she saw Faith wearing her stuff anyway. Faith grinned at the thought.

She'd already decided to take her shower in the main bathroom, not wanting to push her luck in Buffy's personal space too much, but she still needed to grab underwear first. She could forego a bra – the backless top pretty much called for it anyway – but no panties with a skirt as short as this one was going to be on her? There was no way Robin was getting that lucky.

Now if B had been the one who'd asked her out – it probably would have been weird and awkward. Faith didn't usually date; she just went out and hooked up with whoever she chose – but that aside, she wouldn't have had to think twice about forgoing the panties too.

She was getting horny just thinking about it, or maybe it was that she was routing around in Buffy's underwear drawer now – her hands fumbling with both sexy thongs and old lady panties in the messy space as she tried to find a pair she liked.

"Okay, you have thirty seconds to come up with an explanation that won't make me kick your ass into next week."

Faith spun around at the voice right behind her, her hands full of Buffy's underwear. "I… I can explain."

Buffy stood there, wrapped in a fluffy red bathrobe, her arms firmly crossed as she glared at Faith. "And you now have twenty seconds to do it in."

"That wasn't ten seconds," Faith protested, her arms fell to her sides and she forgot she had fists full of Buffy's panties.

"Okay," Buffy conceded, "but it is now, more even, so start getting 'splainy before I…"

"I wanted to steal some of your underwear," Faith shrugged.

It was the truth after all, and Buffy had emerged from a steam-filled bathroom in just a robe. If she decided to try and hand out an ass-whuppin', Faith would be forced to defend herself and the robe was bound to loosen up some, the belt didn't look expertly knotted, maybe it would even fall open altogether.

"To go with my clothes you're stealing?" Buffy spotted them hanging over Faith's arm.

Faith looked at them, there didn't seem a lot of point lying, and she wasn't going to give Buffy the chance to say no. "No, I'm just borrowing the clothes."

Buffy shook her head, as if dismissing the subject altogether and went to sit at her vanity table. Faith stuffed all the underwear back in the drawer except a pair of plain black bikini briefs.

"Isn't it traditionally my dirty underwear you stalker types like?" Buffy asked suddenly, surprising a chuckle from Faith.

"Well I'd wait around for the ones you're wearing, except you're not, are you?" Faith teased, sitting on the end of the bed to watch Buffy in the mirror.

"No, I'm not…" Buffy met her eyes coyly in the mirror and held them for a beat. "Because I just had a bath! Do you wear stuff in the bath?"

Faith thought back to one particular bath she'd taken; it seemed such a long time ago now. "Once upon a time I wore a great big smile."

From the look on Buffy's face, she didn't get it. Not that there was any reason she would, and Faith wasn't going to enlighten her.

She watched Buffy quietly now and if it bothered the other slayer, she wasn't showing it as she deftly applied product after product, a little of everything, but nothing overdone. She was really making an effort tonight, meaning she must really like the hairy cop dude. It weighed on Faith's mind, souring everything she thought about saying. Light conversation, like the kind she wanted to make to try and ease the tension between them, wouldn't come when her lips just wanted to blurt accusations ranging from 'how dare you pretend to love me?' to 'how can you think being with that dude is better than sex like we had last night?'.

Neither seemed appropriate small talk, so she kept quiet and just watched.

Eventually Buffy stood again, holding the robe together tightly with one hand even though it was still cinched closed by the belt. "Do you want to take a shower?"

The direct proposition caught Faith off-guard and she stood up too, "With you, now?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Yes Faith, I just spent thirty minutes creating this work of art that is my face, and now I want to go scrub your back so it can all wash off again."

"Well, B, if you wanted to scrub my back so much, why didn't you suggest having a shower before you put your make up on?" Faith asked, refusing to be cowed by Buffy's patronizing sarcasm.

Buffy stared at her. "How can you do that?"

"Do what?"

Buffy shook her head, breaking eye contact. "Never mind. I'm going to get dressed now, so you can either go through that door or that door." She flicked her fingers between the two doors. "And if you go through that one, Robin will probably thank you for it. There's shampoo and shower gel on the shelf and clean towels in the cupboard… and don't put cigarette burns in my clothes, I haven't even worn them yet."

Seeing as she still didn't have any cigarettes, Buffy had nothing to worry about. Faith wasn't feeling the cravings yet, she'd had to go a few days without more than once in Stockton, but Buffy mentioning it made her want one. She pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Thanks, I appreciate the loan." Faith said, walking into the bathroom.

"And no fishing my panties out of the laundry basket!" Buffy called through as the door shut.

Faith chuckled as she started to strip.


	12. Act 3:6

Buffy sighed deeply as the bathroom door clicked shut.

Coming in and seeing Faith going through her panty drawer had been something of a shock, leaving her with barely the presence of mind to tie her robe shut before speaking. Not that Faith probably would have minded. Buffy could have sworn that Faith was trying to untie the towelling belt with her eyes anyway and maybe she should have kept the other slayer in the room until she'd succeeded.

Nice plan in theory, but Faith would have been late for her date with Robin and she would have been late for her date with Alex…

Okay, and her point was?

Shaking her head, she looked through her wardrobe. Trust Faith to have chosen her sexiest outfit. Not that Buffy had been planning on wearing it tonight – smart casual was her goal – but the thought of Faith wearing _her_ brand new stuff to seduce someone else rankled.

Choosing a strappy red top and black pants, Buffy went to choose underwear next and cringed as she looked through the drawer. Faith had been in here. She'd had two handfuls of the underthings when Buffy had startled her. That might have been more of a turn on if they were all sexy little purchases from Victoria's Secret, but there were more than a few comfy Pink K briefs amongst the good stuff.

"Yet she still seemed plenty flustered when I caught her red handed," Buffy smiled as she chose a comfy pair from the drawer and dropped her robe ready to pull them on. "Almost as flustered as I felt when she wouldn't stop watching me in the mirror."

She'd used three times as much make-up as she usually did for one sitting, just because she hadn't wanted to break the strange, still moment between them.

The shower came to life next door. Faith was in there, probably using the delicious smelling passion fruit shower gel. Robin was in for a real treat tonight.

Buffy looked down at her naked self, pondering. If she went in there, to say, scrub Faith's back, would Robin still be in for a treat?

That was the million dollar question alright. If she opened the bathroom door right now and climbed into the warm, Faith-filled shower, would Robin be eating pizza alone tonight? Or would he just be dining a little late because Faith took so long getting ready?

Buffy wasn't prepared to face the latter. If Faith opened the shower door to her, only to dry off and go out with Robin after…

Buffy dressed, touched up her make-up, ran a brush through her hair, grabbed her bag and left the room, all as quickly as possible. So not wanting to be still in her bedroom when Faith came out in just a towel. Her frantic speed to get out of there actually made her laugh out loud at herself, relaxing her a little as she went down to the living room.

Naomi was sitting on the couch alone, watching BBC-America. She seemed pretty into whatever was on, but when Buffy jumped down the last few steps to avoid the gap, she looked up.

"Miss Summers, you look fantastic," she smiled appreciatively at her elder. Buffy mock-glared at her until the English Rose remembered herself. "I'm sorry, _Buffy_, you look fantastic."

Buffy grinned at her before looking down at herself. "I do?" She knew she didn't look awful, but _fantastic_… really?

"Absolutely."

"Well you look very…" Buffy paused, wanting to return the compliment, but struggling for a second. "…undressy-ed up. What's wrong? I've seen you looking more glamorous for breakfast."

"I, ah, well, that is…" Naomi seemed embarrassed and looked down at her worn multi-coloured jumper and slightly baggy leggings. "I thought I'd veg in front of the telly as I have the place to myself."

"Okay, but why are you staying in all alone?" Buffy walked behind the couch, leaning her elbows on the back beside the cadet's right shoulder.

Naomi twisted around to face her. "Well, Craig and Reece are out on dates with Andrew and Dawn. The girl's are going on patrol. Kennedy is taking Willow on a date. Xander is going to Barnies and he mentioned, rather crossly, that you were joining him there as the deputy sheriff's date. Even Uncle Rupert is going to the disco this evening."

"Giles is coming to Barnies?" Buffy grinned, and leaning even closer she whispered to his niece, "This is his second mid-life crisis, isn't that a bit greedy?"

Naomi giggled, or maybe the word was tittered if you were English. It was pleasant either way.

"Well why don't you come with us?" She suggested, using two fingers to tap Naomi's shoulder playfully. "You don't have to sit in this big old house all alone."

Truthfully, Buffy wasn't too keen on the young Watcher staying in alone. She hadn't seen a Pixie all day, but that didn't mean they wouldn't try taking Naomi if she was left vulnerable.

"I'm not sure; I wouldn't want to be a burden…"

"Well you won't be; and I'd really like it if you came."

"Aren't you going to be on a date?" Naomi asked, surprised.

"Oh, well yeah, but not a serious one. I mean we're not exclusive," Buffy chuckled. "So going on a date with you too isn't forbidden or anything."

Buffy wondered when she'd leaned far enough over the couch to notice Naomi suddenly holding her breath. Then she wondered why she was throwing the word date around so freely today. It just kept rolling from her tongue. And then she wondered what Naomi was going to say, seeing as the girl still hadn't made a sound.

Naomi smiled a secretive little smile and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. "But it is forbidden between Watchers and Slayers, correct?"

"I'm not your Slayer." Buffy pointed out, wondering why her voice was suddenly so much lower.

Naomi seemed to be trying not to laugh and Buffy didn't know whether to be offended or not. Kissing her would hide the smirk, but that seemed more than a little forward even though it was what she wanted to do.

"And how deficient did that line make me sound," Buffy rolled her eyes. It was safer just to laugh this off than to travel any further down the same road. "I don't know what's gotten into me today."

She was starting to stand up straight when Naomi trapped her forearm against the back of the couch.

"No Buffy, its okay. I'm just a little stunned. I've spent so many years hearing about you and studying you and wanting to meet you that I think I perhaps developed a rather insane long distance crush, and now I'm here…"

"You get to realise it," Buffy murmured; she waited a second, gazing into pretty eyes, before giving Naomi's lips the tinest of kisses.

Naomi got very still, but didn't pull her mouth away. Buffy kissed her again, just as quick.

She felt very aware of where they were; Giles was in his bedroom, just a door away. Anyone could come down the stairs or through from the kitchen. This was crazy, and she knew it, but when Naomi still didn't move away or tell her to stop, Buffy leaned closer for a longer kiss that also went unchecked.

Why was she kissing the Watcher cadet again? Oh yeah, because she was hot, because she was there and because Faith didn't love her. Three very good reasons just at the minute.

Her hand gently cupped the back of Naomi's head, deepening the kiss. Naomi went up on her knees on the couch, bringing them closer, her own hand resting on Buffy's cheek.

But then abruptly Naomi pulled away, nearly toppling from the couch as she angrily muttered: "I'm going to bloody kill him!"

"What?" It had all ended so fast, her mind was still full of thoughts of sliding over the back of the couch and removing Naomi's fraying jumper. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Naomi said quickly, although that didn't look so true. "That was very, very nice, but I don't think it would be a good idea to continue."

"Why?" Buffy looked about her. "Is it the not so secret location? Because there are other places we can go."

"No, no, it's not that. It's just…" Naomi struggled for the right way to explain. "I'm not a lesbian, before now my only link to the other side of the fence was having a gay best friend, I mean, of course, I always said I wouldn't kick Jennifer Aniston out of bed, but then I never thought I'd get a chance to bed her in the first place… I think what I'm feeling here…" she bit her lip for a second before continuing. "I think what I'm feeling here is just something akin to idolization, and it would be dangerous for me to think of it as anything else."

"Okay," Buffy shrugged. "I guess I can settle for idolization instead of making out; it's a different kind of satisfaction, but it'll do. Jennifer Aniston, huh?"

Naomi smiled. "She's my other idol. So who did you want your big celebrity lesbian clinch to be with when you were my age?"

Buffy frowned, first at the age comment and then at the question. "No one. I was one hundred percent into guys until just recently, or at least I thought I was. Now I'm starting to look back and wonder if there were signs, you know?"

Buffy sighed wistfully as she spoke for the first time about a question that had been bugging her for a while.

"Did I choose a relationship with a guy who couldn't have sex because secretly I didn't want to have sex with a guy? Was I with Riley because he was Mr Conformity – nice and safe with two-point four kids and a picket fence reflected in his eyes – because I was trying to kid myself that that was what I really wanted, or what I thought my mom wanted for me? Was I with Spike because his attitude and his darker side reminded me of someone else, someone who it was even more crazy to love than him?" Buffy looked up sharply at Naomi. "You are so wishing you had your notebook right now, aren't you?"

"Yes." Naomi smiled. "But it's okay, I have a good memory."

Buffy chuckled. "I don't know, I think about all that and then I think I'm going crazy. I know I loved all of them, deeply in Angel's case, but now… it all pales into insignificance."

"So the only woman you've ever felt this way about is Faith?"

Buffy chuckled some more. "Yes, and yet strangely I kicked her out of bed this morning."

Giles came out of his bedroom all spruced up and Buffy stood up straighter. Suddenly getting caught macking on her Watcher's niece didn't seem such a good idea. Giles only saw his two girls talking though and merely gave them a cheery nod before going into his office next door.

"I'm going to go touch up my lipstick before everyone congregates." Buffy told her. "You can still come tonight if you want? I promise not to make any more moves." She grinned uncomfortably.

"No thank you, going to a pub and not being allowed to drink will just be frustrating. In fact if you don't mind, I might see if the girl's will let me go on patrol with them."

"No, that's okay, a good idea even, Just be careful and stay with them all the time, okay?"

Naomi got to her feet, nodding. "Buffy, will you do something for me?" She hesitated and Buffy waited patiently. "Tonight, if you and Alex get close… please try and remember all you've just told me."

"Um, okay." Buffy frowned as Naomi left the room.

* * *

As the lights in the cinema came up at the end of the movie, Dawn relaxed her fingers around Reece's ready to reluctantly let go. To her surprise he kept a firm grip as he stood up and gave a playful tug to get her out of her seat.

Smiling, she followed his lead back into the centre aisle. If this hadn't been a date at the start of the night, she was pretty sure it was now. Giddiness surged through her as she let the fact that Reece liked her sink in and then the nerves came back multiplied by a million. Good nerves this time though. Okay, still very nervous nerves, but the kind where she was going to pee her pants from excitement, not fear.

"So it's still early," Fen said as they wandered back into the foyer. "Do you guys have to get going yet?"

"No." Dawn said quickly, not even knowing what time it was exactly, just that she wasn't letting go of Reece's hand yet – which meant he couldn't drive them home yet. "We have a few more hours."

When they'd finally cleared the crowds inside and outside the cinema it was dark out and chillier than it had been before they went in. Even the slight shivers that went through Dawn didn't change her mind about going home.

"So what now?" Craig asked, looking about.

"Let's take a walk." Reece smiled only for Dawn. "See what we can find."

"Okay." She nodded eagerly, squeezing his hand for the hundreth time and still hardly able to believe she was really holding it.

She caught Fen's eyes and the blonde dropped her gaze to the hand-holding before giving Dawn a big grin. Dawn smiled, shrugging one shoulder in a shy response.

Walking behind them, Andrew's eyes were locked on Dawn and Reece's joined hands as he tried to come up with ways to separate them. Sure that it was what Buffy would want him to do. Short of barging between them and insisting they both hold his hands instead, he could think of nothing though.

Plus Dawn looked really happy. As happy as he'd ever seen her even and Reece was smiling as he talked away to her, not looking at all like the arrogant asshead Andrew had come to think of his as. Maybe the cadet wasn't all that bad after all or maybe he was, but Dawn was changing him and making him be a better person.

If that was the case, then Andrew trying to break them up could be a really bad thing.

Reece was a leader by nature – just as Andrew himself was a follower – and leaders could be dangerous if they weren't set on the right path early on. What if this was Reece's turning point and Dawn was the one to set him on the right path? What if this innocent act of holding hands was what stopped Reece from becoming a bad watcher and in the years to come maybe even an enemy of the true objective of the new Watchers Council?

Andrew could be the only person who stood between a glorious future for the Council and the total annihilation of it. His actions at this seemingly very mundane moment could change the fortunes of Slayers stretching all the way into the infinity of time…

Andrew gave a little yelp of surprise as Craig suddenly took his hand, shocking him from his thoughts. He pulled his hand out of the loose grip as he glared at him for the scare.

"Sorry," Craig muttered, putting his hand back in his pocket. "Just you were staring at them two so much I thought you might wanna hold hands too."

"I…" Andrew couldn't really explain what he'd just been thinking about.

Craig waited for an explanation for a few seconds and then gave up. Skipping ahead a couple of steps, he linked arms with Fen and started up a conversation with her.

Andrew looked at his hand. No one had ever tried to hold it before. Not since he was in fifth grade anyway and his mom used to walk him to school. Feeling disappointed, he followed behind the other four, still able to feel Craig's touch on his palm.

* * *

Half an hour after kissing Naomi for reasons that were far from reasonable, Buffy found herself sandwiched between Xander and Giles in the truck on the way to Boudenver. Trying without success to block out Xander's griping.

"I just don't understand why you had to choose my friend to play out your revenge." She hadn't told him her plan, he'd guessed. "When this hits the fan, it's going to blow the crap all over me."

"Stop whining. Alex knows I just meant it as friend date," she lied.

"I think you may be over-estimating his ability to read minds." Xander countered.

He was looking all fancy in a new blue shirt and dark dress pants. Buffy was so used to seeing him in his working gear these days, she'd forgotten how nice he could clean up. The plain black eye patch – that he was fiddling with as he complained – added rather than took away anything from his naturally handsome face.

"Okay fine, so maybe he thinks it's a date as in the romantic kind, so what?" Buffy shrugged. "It's not like he's had a chance to pre-conceive where this might go. He won't have gone out and bought a ring. We'll have a nice time tonight and then I'll tell him I'm not looking for a relationship just before we go home."

"You have no idea what that does to a guy, do you?" Xander asked, and his tone was only semi-jokey.

"Xander, we have more pressing matters to worry about than what two consenting adults are expecting from this evening's affair." Giles said, as he negotiated the bendy road into the village. "We still have a useless shower block and a large hole in the kitchen ceiling."

"It's not for want of trying, believe me." Xander sighed in exasperation. "Every time I manage to get a human instead of a voicemail machine, the plumber guy promises he's on his way and then he just doesn't show up."

"Maybe he keeps getting lost." Buffy watched the surrounding fields and trees go by. "We do live in the middle of nowhere."

"He's a local." Xander explained. "And all the locals seem to know where we live."

"True."

"And the hole in the ceiling?" Giles asked firmly as they drove along Boudenver's main street.

"You want the good news or the bad news?" Xander chirped.

"Good news." Buffy answered automatically.

"The generator in the basement works just fine, and there was even some diesel left in there. Oz helped me get it going this afternoon before he left. Just as well seeing as Willow was about to go into melt down trying to wash all her and Kennedy's clothes in a big tin tub."

"And the bad news?" Giles asked.

"We're going to need a lot more juice to keep it running. I called around and the quickest quote was a week at the earliest. Apparently there's a big raccoon problem, they're getting into people's basements and chewing through the wires. Lot's of fried critters and dead power all over the county."

"Does that mean we have to keep an eye out for crispy raccoons?" Buffy wrinkled her nose at the thought of going down to the basement and finding fluffy – or not so – dead animals all over the place.

"Well no, because Goorzar already took care of our electricity for us." Xander reminded her.

"I suspect your friend the deputy sheriff will be most helpful in supplying me with _all _the useless information on the raccoon infestation that he can think of." It was Giles turn to sigh.

"Hey you made up the Badger club, not me!" Xander indicated the wide alley next to Barnies and Giles swung the truck in and parked up.

"And I have already lived to regret it."

Music was pumping from inside the one story bar as they all climbed from the cab. It sounded livelier than usual at least. If Alex thought this was a serious romantic date, having some loud music and lots of other people around would make it easier to escape if she had to.

A couple of young men were standing in front of the doors. They moved politely out of the way, but Buffy could feel their stares on her back as she walked through the door Xander had pulled open.

She stopped just the other side, disappointed. Okay, so there weren't a lot of other people after all.

The old men that were always in there were seated at their usual table at the back and there were maybe seven or eight other patrons, ranging in age from younger than her to older than Giles.

Going to the bar, flanked by Giles and Xander, she looked over to the little deejay booth that had been set up in a corner of the room. Giant speakers faced out into the room, and a well-built kid with a shock of dark brown hair was leaning intently over a high-tech CD player.

"I never thought The Bronze would make me an elitist," Xander said next to her ear while they waited for service. "But this is just… feeble."

Buffy chuckled. "It's still early."

"Then let's all drink to the hope of better times ahead." Xander drank from one of the beers put in front of them.

Buffy eyed the bottle once he'd finally stopped his discreet gulping. "Yeah well let's take it easy because my idea of better isn't carry you home." She said mildly.

His reaction wasn't so mild. "I've been working my ass off all day, so I'll drink what I want, thank you!"

He marched off with his bottle in hand to a table and sat down with his back to the bar.

"Oh boy, the fun begins," Buffy muttered, sipping from her own bottle as she looked around for Alex. She couldn't see him yet. Maybe he was busy in the back.

"He's not been very happy recently, has he?" Giles remarked from her side.

"Not for a while, no. I'm worried about him." She admitted. "And the amount of work you're putting on him isn't helping."

"Me?" Giles looked surprised. "But he asked for the job, Buffy. When I mentioned getting in a contractor to see to all the work that was necessary, he offered his services immediately, and I don't mind saying I was extremely pleased. I couldn't think of anyone better qualified for it at the time, but now I'm wondering if I was wrong." He looked pained as he took a sip from his imported beer. "I had hoped that having something to focus on would help pull him out of the depression he sank into in Los Angeles, but maybe it was too soon."

"Yeah, well there's having something to focus on and there's being worked into the ground. I think Xander's feeling the latter at the moment. You're expecting him to do every little thing and he's burning himself out trying not to let you down." Buffy explained. "You should have realised it was more than a one person job."

"Well of course it's more than a one person job, that's why…" Giles trailed off as what she was saying sank in. "Oh, the silly git!"

It was his turn to march off to join Xander at the table.

Buffy sipped some more of her drink and stayed at the bar. Despite the warning she'd given Xander, her own bottle was nearly empty. There was no point walking away when she'd need another in a minute.

There was a tap on her shoulder and she turned her body around, expecting it to be Xander back, trying to get away from Giles. It wasn't. It was a big, good-looking guy with wild brown hair and a sheepish smile on his attractive mouth.

"Hello." The way she said it sounded more like a question while she waited to see what he wanted with her.

"Hi Buffy, I'm glad you made it. I thought you might have changed your mind."

She stared at him for a beat, wondering how he knew her name and then it clicked.

"Alex!" She stared at him in astonishment. "Oh my God, you shaved your beard all off!"

* * *

The cab Robin had ordered dropped them off on Boudenver's main street, right in front of the general store.

Faith had seen it all when she'd walked through the day before, but he took a few minutes to check out the scenery in the dying light.

"Quaint." He smiled at her.

"Ain't it just." She smirked. "Barnies is down that way, but, uh… feel free to tell me to go to hell seeing as you're gonna be paying all night, but is there any chance I could borrow a couple of bucks to get a pack of smokes?"

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with being an enabler," he grinned, but fished out his wallet anyway.

"Yeah well I don't smoke many, but I've got a feeling I'm going to need their calming qualities tonight." She admitted.

"Feeling nervous about hanging out with 'the Fam'?" he copied her word choice from before.

"Yeah, and I know its lame, but…"

"It's okay Faith," he cut her off gently. "I get why you'd be nervous; they're a pretty tight knit group. Go get your cigarettes, I'll wait here."

"Thanks."

Inside, the store was bigger than it looked, but not by much. Faith let her eyes scan the few well-stocked aisles before she walked up to the counter. The guy behind it was the same old guy who'd presented her with the free gifts of towel and soap the day before.

"Hey." She greeted. "Remember me?"

"Of course Miss," he smiled at her. "And how are you settling in?"

She chuckled. "Honestly? I'm not sure yet."

"Well these things take time." He nodded, knowingly. "And what can I do for you today?"

"Carton of Luckys please?" Faith put the money on the counter so he didn't think she was after another freebie.

He turned and fetched the brand she wanted from the back wall. "Here you are, Miss."

She took the cigarettes from him.

"Aren't you going to tell me these things will kill me?" she asked as he opened the cash register.

"Should I miss?"

"No, you just seem like the sort that would."

"I find that most people die of something sooner or later," he smiled politely as he handed her back the change. "Enjoy your evening; the disco is always quite the success."

"Yeah, thanks." She regarded him through narrowed eyes for a moment. She'd never said she was going to Barnies.

He continued to smile at her courteously and maybe a little gormlessly. Then again, she was all dressed up and that cop had said the disco was like the social event of the month around here. It wouldn't take a genius to make the leap.

Forgetting about it, she sauntered back out on to the street to Robin. Unwrapping the cellophane on her cigarettes as they walked up the street, she didn't notice the pretty almond-shaped yellow eyes watching from the alley.

* * *

There had once been a bell above the door, but over the years the metal arm holding it in place had been bent upwards and now you had to open the door with some force for it to make any sound at all.

This night, it wasn't the bell that alerted him to another customer, but the absence of any noise at all. The changing pattern of air molecules perhaps or a subtle sixth sense he possessed without understanding.

Owen looked up.

The door was closed, but a familiar scent had invaded the shop, taking him back to the past, taking him back to someone he'd spent a long life time trying to forget.

Frankincense.

With it came the memories stored forever in his subconscious; memories of magic and mayhem and…

"Hello Olwyn."

Her clear voice sounded right in front of him – although he still couldn't see anyone – unchanged despite the years. Maybe he was finally going mad, he'd always feared it would happen one day and the timing would certainly appeal to certain sods.

Yet hadn't he known she would come here, at this time, and hadn't he made plans in the event of it? Yes of course, but he hadn't known she would come to see him, she never had before. Perhaps this time she was more upset than usual. Despite himself he feared her wrath, not for himself, but for what he had built.

"Lucie," he murmured the name that still felt like love on his lips. "What can I get for you this evening? Perhaps some Chicory to relieve your shyness or some Garlic to see you safely on your way, hmm?"

There was sweet, sweet laughter in the room. "Come now old friend, are you not pleased to see me."

"That is the very problem, my lady, I can not see you. Did you really take the time to visit to hide behind parlour tricks?"

"Parlour tricks?" Meleusa repeated, amused, as she drew the sigil in the air and let herself be seen. "I remember a time when invisibility was your holy grail."

"A time long since past." Owen looked upon the woman – not that she was just a woman anymore – that had once been the heart of his existence, his only real grounding in a life overflowing with fantasy.

She was still a handsome woman, still as exotic as ever with her smooth dark skin and captivating, tantalising eyes…

Quickly he averted his eyes to the counter, not caring if she noticed his weakness, only concerned with not letting her gaze get the better of him.

"You look so old, Olwyn," she said, never was she one to mince words for the sake of feelings, especially his it always seemed.

"I am old Lucie," he reminded her.

She smiled thinly. "Yes, a shame you found the elixir so late."

"All that matters is that I found it in time. Why are you here Lucie? Why do you still linger? Jupitus remains trapped; there is nothing here for you now."

"You know why," she countered, finally pushing back her thick multi-coloured robe. She'd cut her hair. It was still the same shiny black but now it was cropped close to her head, and was presently slicked stylishly back from her face. It was a jarring change to what he remembered of her silken tresses, but took none of her beauty away.

"There is power rising here, Olwyn," she continued, a merry glint in her eyes now. "Can you not feel it?"

He didn't answer and she laughed pleasantly. Once upon a time hearing her laugh had made him want to trade his pen for a lute (not that he knew how to play one). Now it chilled the marrow in his bones.

"Always so dutiful, my dear Olwyn. Did you ever make it to Sunnydale?"

"I never had the need." He replied shortly.

She nodded, "No, I suppose not. You've done a better job here, I'd say, very pretty."

"Then if it pleases you…" he began.

He saw her black gloved hands lay palm down on the countertop and looked up to see her leaning towards him.

"It doesn't please me," she said, her voice very low. "I can not remember the last time I connected your name with a happy occurrence!"

"Then you will be delighted to leave, my lady, I am sure." Although not as happy as he would be to see her leave.

She shook her head again. "No, I think its time I took a holiday, and this cosy haven of yours comes highly recommended."

"Ah yes," he smiled tightly. "Global murder and mischief must cause you a lot of stress. Putting your feet up for a couple of years will probably do you good. Please stay, enjoy the scenery, sunbathing by the lake is must-do."

Her eyes flashed yellow briefly, his sarcasm aggravating her. She wasn't used to insubordination, but then it had probably been some time since she'd let herself be in the company of someone who didn't bend to her will or break resisting.

"I was actually thinking a working holiday. The power here is fierce but unbalanced, so many champions for good… and their hangers on," she nodded at him. "It's only fair the other side should have their representative."

"And you think you are equal to this task?" he sneered, but deep down a cold fire burned in his belly.

"I was Consort of Jupitus, Lord of Destruction, for four centuries; I think I know my way around the job." She snapped, and it felt dangerously good to rile her. Pulling up her cloak once more, she suddenly smiled again. "And you know, I think I'm going to like working here."

With one last mocking smile, she turned for the door, with a little hand wave she was invisible again before it closed behind her.

More shaken than he could remember being in a long while, Owen hurried to the door and started bringing in the merchandise bins from outside. Once that was done, he shut and locked the door up tight before flipping the sign from open to closed.

People would wonder why he had closed two hours early, especially with the disco tonight that always brought late trade in, they'd probably even complain.

'_Let them,' he_ thought as he readied himself for going home. _'Let them complain about such trivial things for as long as they can, for soon their grumbles may be far from trivial.'_

* * *

They'd found the funfair after a while and none of them could think of a better way to spend the rest of their evening than the way that included bright lights, fast rides and the smell of cotton candy floating in the air.

There wasn't much there to be honest, but Dawn was still impressed with it. Sunnydale hadn't had anything like it all. The carnivale had come once a year, but Buffy had never let her go at night because of the huge threat to human life its shadowy chaotic atmostphere posed.

Dawn had thought that the same threat could possibly lurking around here. Lakeside was less than ten miles from the Hellmouth and chances were every carnivale the world over attracted the seedier side of life and unlife. She was with a Watcher though, and even if Reece was just a trainee at the moment, she trusted him to protect her. And it wasn't as if she didn't have her own skills in phyisical combat.

They were on a ride like the Tilt-a-Whirl now, in a semi-circular car big enough to hold all five of them, although it was a squeeze. The attendant had spun them a few times at the beginning of the ride, but when he'd moved on, Craig showed them a trick he knew to keep the car spinning and spinning and spinning.

Dawn was screaming and she could hear Fen beside her screaming too, and on her other side she could hear Reece laughing hard enough to die from it. The G-force was pushing her head back painfully into the seat, but she didn't even care because it was too much fun and when she tried to wave her arms in the air like Fen was she couldn't get them to do it properly and she let them collapse back down onto the bar to hold on tight. Reece grabbed one of her hands and lifted it for her and she turned her head as best as she could to offer him a rictus-y smile.

Eventually – too soon and not soon enough – the ride ended and the five of them stumbled out of the car and clattered off of the metal skirting.

Dawn's legs were wobbly and she nearly fell on stepping onto firm ground again; Reece caught her arm, laughing, and pulled her close to his side to steady her.

"Oh God." Was all Fen could manage as giggles dribbled from her.

"And that's how you get your money's worth." Craig panted.

"I'm gonna be sick!" Andrew leant over a bollard with one hand pressed to his stomach.

"Wuss." Dawn laughed at him, although she was still feeling dizzy too.

Craig moved closer to Andrew and rubbed his back. "You alright mate?"

"Yeah, I just need a minute." Andrew said with his eyes closed.

Reece shook his head at the pair and Dawn giggled, rolling her eyes.

"So who's gonna win me a bear?" Fen asked. Getting four bemused stares, she pointed around at the numerous stalls. "I don't mind which bear, as long as its big enough to look like my date for the rest of the night. Fifth-wheeling sucks."

Dawn smiled apologetically and walked the few steps to her friend's side. It was the furthest away she'd been from Reece since entering the cinema, and she didn't like it, but she didn't like the guilt either.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you into a wheel."

"Sunny D, I was kidding!" Fen yelled at her, laughing.

"Well why don't the three of us go and get something to eat," Reece suggested, hiking his thumb at Craig and Andrew. "Give you ladies some time to yourselves."

"Hot dog please?" Dawn said encouragingly.

"Ditto." Said Fen.

"Got it." Reece smiled at them and motioned for the other two boys to follow him as he walked away.

As soon as they were alone, Fen grabbed at Dawn's arm and bent her knees as she crooned: "Oh my God, Dawn, what a catch!"

"What?" Dawn grinned.

"Reece! He is so way beyond perfect boyfriend material."

* * *

"You just look so different," Buffy grinned. "I didn't even recognise you."

"Well I remembered what you said," said Alex shyly, he was behind the bar now getting them both fresh drinks. "About liking men naked… face-naked." Despite his teasing, he was blushing as hard as she was.

"Yeah, I was a little drunk, not my greatest impression making night," she admitted, accepting another beer.

"I don't know, I thought you made a great impression, great as in big anyway," he smiled, and she could actually see it and it was nice! "Certainly none of the old guys are going to forget you in a hurry."

Buffy looked to where he was gesturing. The troupe of old men she'd spotted walking in all raised their tankards to her and she turned again quickly, going an even brighter red.

"Anyone would think I'd been pole dancing," she cringed, grabbing at Alex's big arm as he came back to her side of the bar.

"Well, during the off-season, discussing the price of milk can turn into a spectator sport around here. So stories of monsters and lesbians are like a red letter day to most folk."

"Oh. Well in that case can we sit down before they start clapping and jeering." Still holding on to his arm, she led him over to Xander and Giles.

"For heavens sake, Xander, of course I never meant for you to undertake every single task by yourself." Giles looked up briefly as Buffy and Alex sat down, before focusing again on a sulky looking Xander. "It would take you a month of Sundays and more even without all the extra work that keeps cropping up."

"You said you wanted me to do it all." Xander reminded him. "I remember it well; it was when the nightmares began. You put me in charge of the repair and maintenance and told me to see to it all, and I'm trying, but it's a big long list and I'm just one little carpenter-man, Giles. And I can't keep up with the renovations and deal with all the little day to day crap of burnt bedrooms and broken ceilings too. I'm sorry to let you down, but…"

"You just said it yourself, you stupid man, I put you in charge!" Giles shouted over the table to Xander. The music hid any hush in the back ground conversation, but Giles looked around embarrassed anyway to see several people looking over.

"I don't know why all the locals are so down on us," Buffy said, ducking a little in her seat. "When we provide so much free entertainment."

Alex grinned at her, and then glared at the patrons staring over. They all looked quickly away.

Xander was sitting back in his chair, surprised at the outburst. It had been a long time since he'd been shouted at by Giles like that. And from what he could remember, in the past he'd usually deserved it, this time he was the injured party and the shouting should have been upsetting, yet all he could focus on was one little word.

Seeing Xander's expression, Giles hurried to explain himself. "When we first discussed it I thought I had made myself clear, but apparently not. I didn't hire you just for your handy-man skills Xander; I hired you as a general contractor, a type of project manager I suppose. I never meant for you to try and fix every blasted thing yourself."

"'Sup guys, this where the party's at?" Faith asked cheerily, coming up behind them.

Buffy choked on her mouthful of beer and tried to hide the coughing that came with it. What was Faith doing here? She was supposed to be on a date with Robin.

"Giles just called me a man." Xander told Faith. Either her apology earlier had done the trick and he was trying to put the past behind them, or he was so excited at being declared a man at last by the head of their little family that he wanted to share it with everyone.

"Actually I called you a stupid man," Giles corrected. "And is that all you heard of what I said?"

"I'm in charge, you said that too right?" Xander's back straightened in a way Buffy hadn't seen in a while.

"Yes. I know absolutely nothing about construction, renovation, building codes or the like and so I delegated… to you. You were then supposed to delegate anything you didn't want to do to other people. Sub-contracting I believe it's called."

"Oh, right." Xander smiled sheepishly. "I guess you're not such a slave-driving ass after all then."

"And I guess you're not such a lazy arse either." Giles smiled as he took a sip from his beer.

"And to celebrate this coming togetherness," Robin set down a tray of drinks onto the table. One for them all. "I didn't know what you'd like, so I just got you a beer," he told Alex, who looked surprised than he'd even been included.

The deputy sheriff stood to shake hands and they politely introduced themselves.

Buffy took the opportunity to glance at Faith, who was looking over to where the deejay station had been set up, but she caught Buffy's movement and turned to her instantly.

Buffy almost looked away on instinct, but stopped herself and said quietly, "I didn't know you were coming here. I thought you two were going out for pizza."

"Change of plans," Faith shrugged, looking so damn hot in Buffy's new clothes that Buffy had to lick her lips. "First night here and all, figured I should…" she trailed off, nervous.

"It's very nice that you decided to join us," Giles smiled at her.

Faith's eyes flicked his way, but settled on Buffy again quickly.

All Buffy could do was nod, not trusting herself to speak. It was nice that Faith had joined them, what wasn't nice was that she'd joined them with Robin in tow. Buffy could handle them getting pizza together somewhere else, not so much with the handling when they were sitting in front of her.

"Your cousin's good," Buffy said politely to Alex as soon as he sat back down. The boy DJ who was playing a mix of rock and pop, and okay so it wasn't the most original line up but she could see her self dancing to it, maybe, later, if Xander did. "Does he do it professionally?"

"He'd like to, but…" Alex shook his head. "Makes good money over the summer though, hires himself out to all the hotels and lodges, uses my big amp for free," he smiled. "Nine to five he works for the electricity company, and hates it, but it's a regular wage and he's got a kid on the way, so…"

Buffy glanced over; the deejay didn't look old enough to soon be a father, but then it wasn't like the kids had a lot else to do around here.

"I guess its difficult finding work, especially this time of year, huh?" She felt Faith look over again. "Not many Doublemeat Palaces with the high staff turnover around."

"Well it's not the ideal time to be job hunting, no." Alex agreed, "But there's usually something part time to be found if you're desperate. Why, are you looking for a job? Because we need a new administrative assistant down at the department – just a few hours a week – and I can put a good word in for you."

"Uh no it's not me." Buffy hedged, not sure how Faith's pride would take this conversation. "A friend."

"Well if they know how to file tell them to come by for an informal interview," he offered.

There was a big sigh from across the table and Faith sat up straighter. "She means me."

"Oh." Alex looked really awkward now. "Well that might not work out."

"You don't say," Faith drawled.

"I don't get it," Buffy looked to Alex. Was this a jealousy thing? Because if so she'd end this date right now even if it wasn't terrible so far. Not that that would help get Faith the job, but, but… she may be a born again slut, but she still had her principles. "You won't even give her an interview?"

"Well, no, I mean, yes, I could give her an interview, but there wouldn't really be a lot of point." He apologised uncomfortably.

"Ex-con working in the sheriff's department B, think about it?"

"Oh, good point. Oops. Well Alex said there was other stuff if you want it bad enough."

"Needs to be full time anyway." Faith took a sip of her beer.

"Well we, I mean you…" Buffy shook her head, not caring if this made her lose some ground. "_We_ still have a week to find you something."

"I'll ask around." Alex promised.

Faith nodded, "Thanks."

"Can't Giles put you on the payroll?" Robin asked.

"I don't want to ask, he's doing enough already." Faith fidgeted.

"No he's not, I mean he is, but one more little thing won't hurt." Buffy touched Giles arm to get his attention. "Giles can you put Faith on the payroll so that the parole officer thinks she's in full time work?"

Giles, still deep in conversation with Xander, one where they were finally on the same wavelength and getting somewhere, answered distractedly,

"I, ah, she already is on the payroll and she's enrolled as a student at the school, unfortunately that's not enough for the courts, at least not while Deb is still coming for her weekly visits. I spoke to her on the telephone this afternoon about it – a lovely woman, very helpful – She's aware that Faith won't need full time education to complete her GED and Faith can't pretend to be taking any more advanced classes until that's on her record. I can't employ her as a teacher like the rest of you while she's on parole… but never fear, we'll think of something." He smiled brightly and turned back to Xander.

"So along with a part time plumber and electrician, I could get, maybe, one other guy?" Xander was working stuff out on a napkin.

"Get three if you like," Giles offered. "The money's there in the account I set up for you. I did wonder why it wasn't going down nearly as fast as I expected."

"No I think one will be enough. I can take Andrew on more full time now and annoying as he is, he makes a great gopher. And I'd rather keep doing all the woodwork myself. It's just the plastering, decorating and heavy lifting I really need the help with." Xander concluded. "In other words, all the stuff I don't want to do."

"That's fine." Giles nodded. "Do as little as you like as long as you make sure the rest of it gets done in a timely fashion by someone else. And don't take Andrew away from the rest of his duties for too long, the place would be a mess without his feather duster. You can start advertising in the morning."

Buffy looked from her two favourite men – who were both wearing happy job-well-done smiles – to Faith – who wasn't listening to them as she pulled the label from her beer bottle despondently.

Robin caught her eye and was obviously thinking the same thing as her.

"Do you know anyone looking for some work, Al?" Xander asked his friend. "Full time, fair pay, great boss."

"Um?" Alex squinted at Xander. Yep, he was thinking the same thing too.

"God, do you all have Stupid as your middle name or what?" Buffy asked.

When all three in question shot her slightly hurt looks, she rolled her eyes.

"Xander meet your new plastering, decorating, _heavy-lifting _employee of the year; Faith meet your fantastic easy-going new boss."

They both stared at her for a beat before staring hard at each other.

"You gotta be frickin' kidding me!"

"No way, not a chance, no!"

"No escaping it guys," Buffy smirked, feeling the weight of one problem lift at least. "It's fate."

* * *

Thanks for reading. Feedback always welcome.


	13. Act 3:7

Andrew shoved the last of the hotdog in his mouth at just the wrong moment. In front of him was the perfect stall! Enthusiastically he flapped his arms about and made mumbling noises as he chewed as fast as he could.

Fen was the first to spot him and took a step back, "Are you choking?"

He shook his head hard, "Mmmgfflows!" He pointed.

"Watch out for the stampeding Buffalos?" Dawn grinned, but not before she checked behind her for Hellmouthish anomalies.

Andrew rolled his eyes as he swallowed at last.

"Hi, here's just the ticket!" Reece called to them cheerfully as he spotted the Van Helsing-themed stall. "This game should be a cinch."

As people turned to see what he meant, Andrew gave a choked cry and only didn't stamp his foot because there was no point without an audience.

"That's what I was trying to say." He ran in front of everyone to get to the stall first. "I mean, its firing crossbows at cardboard Vampires, we should be able to clean up!"

"We?" Reece tilted his head towards him, raising an eyebrow. "I think you mean I'll clean up while you watch, Wellsy."

"Well yeah," Andrew shrugged, not really bothered by the slight. Buffy never let him have a crossbow anyway, so if he couldn't use one with any skill it was hardly his fault.

"You're not the only one who can shoot a bloomin' crossbow." Craig gave a disdainful shake of his head.

"No, just the only one here who has the training to hit the heart three times out of three," Reece pointed to the red target drawn onto the cardboard figure.

The innermost circle was centred over where the heart would be and only three inches across. From there the circles were wider and ever expanding until they ran out of cardboard Vampire. There were numbers in the circles and the player's final score determined what prize was given.

"Wanna bet?" Craig was casually licking mustard from his finger as he made the challenge.

Reece started laughing. "I wouldn't want to take your money, mate."

Craig started digging in his pocket for money to play the game. "Scared I'll humiliate you?"

Reece let go of Dawn's hand to brusquely pull his wallet out. "Fine Rayne, if you want me to make you like a prat in front of your boyfriend."

Andrew tugged on Craig's sleeve as he whispered: "Have you forgotten he's spent the last four years learning how to shoot vampires in the heart with a crossbow."

"And no offence," Dawn added. "But you've spent them learning how to make tilt-a-whirls go faster."

"So I lose five dollars," Craig grinned at them both. "What's that? A couple of quid."

"I think they're more worried about the crushing blow to your self-confidence," Fen explained to him as he stepped forward to give stall-tender his money.

That made Craig grin at her too. Andrew came to stand beside him, excitement making him bounce on his toes. He saw Dawn go and stand on the other side of Reece, offering words of encouragement that made him smile down at her.

Fen came to stand between them all. "You guys know you're getting all hostile over a stupid carnival stall, right?"

"Yes," Reece said simply, checking out the small toy-like crossbow he'd been given.

Dawn stuck her head around Reece to see her friend. "It's not just over this. Did I forget to mention they hate each other?"

As Fen nodded, Craig grimly said, "Hate seems too soft somehow."

Andrew shifted from foot to foot as he watched Craig familiarise himself with the weapon's trigger.

"You don't have to do this to impress me, you know?" he whispered when he was sure no one but Craig would hear. "I mean, you don't have to do anything to impress me."

"I'm not trying to impress you." Craig turned a serious look his way, making Andrew blush for his blunder. Craig smiled, letting him off the hook before he could stammer anything out. "I'm trying to win you that three foot Thing from The Fantastic Four hanging up there."

Andrew looked up and over to see the monstrous orange plush doll. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. His fists clenched a few times in a child-like gesture of desire for the toy. "Okay, good luck."

"Four darts," the attendant slapped a set down in front of each boy. "The hearts worth twenty points. You need sixty to get one of the top prizes."

"Doddle," Reece gave Dawn a wink as he inserted his first dart and took aim.

"Uh, I think that's the wrong way around." Andrew muttered to Craig when he had difficulty loading.

Craig took a closer look at the dart. "Oh yeah," he chuckled and stuck it in the chamber the right way around.

Andrew was so not getting his Thing tonight.

Reece's first dart thunked into the cardboard Vampire right in the centre of the heart.

"Nice shot," Fen told him.

"Thank you," Reece concentrated on reloading. "Your…" There was another soft thunk "… uh, go." He frowned slightly at the dart quivering inside the innermost circle of the vampire hanging next to his.

Craig shot Andrew a wink, trying to keep his grin in check as he smugly picked up another dart.

* * *

Willow pulled the car into the parking lot of The Mouth, frowning as Kennedy opened her door and hopped out before they fully stopped.

"What's the hurry?" she wondered, aloud.

She was still feeling nervous about this date idea and had been mostly silent the whole drive here; worried that if she opened her mouth she'd blurt out what had happened with Oz, and there was no telling what kind of chain reaction that might start. Especially now that she'd had a whole afternoon to come clean and hadn't.

As she cut off the engine her door opened, making her jump, but it was just Kennedy.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"No, its okay," Willow gave her a small tense smile and started to climb from the car. "Just not use to the chivalry."

Kennedy offered her hand to help her out of the car, but Willow didn't notice.

Looking at her outstretched hand, Kennedy felt like an idiot and was about to stuff it into her jacket pocket out of sight when Willow turned from locking the car. She took the hand automatically as they started to walk, assuming that was Kennedy's intention all along. Kennedy shrugged compliantly.

"So this will be fun." Willow forced, wondering if it sounded forced. "A nice quiet drink with you, and me, and…us."

Kennedy squeezed her hand. "Yeah."

Kennedy sounded pretty uncomfortable too.

They were half way to the bar when they heard the music thumping out and turned to frown at each other.

"Sounds like a party." Said Kennedy.

Willow half-smiled, "So much for our quiet night."

Did she sound too pleased? Parties were good for avoiding sensitive conversations, and if you couldn't completely avoid them, you could at least pretend you couldn't hear the touchy lines until you'd had some time to process them.

"We could always go somewhere else," she offered, just in case she had sounded too pleased.

"No, noisy is okay," Kennedy walked them around a group of teenagers standing by the door.

The teens all gave the two of them the once over as they passed, a few shook their heads before going back to their conversation. Relations between the new arrivals and the townsfolk weren't progressing.

"The important thing is having the evening to ourselves for once." Kennedy let go of Willow's hand to open the door, letting her enter first. "Without any…"

A table of familiar faces looked over as they walked in, causing both of them to stop on the threshold.

"Let's not play the lotto tonight, okay," Willow sighed, "Our luck obviously isn't worth the dollar."

"Now I want to go somewhere else," Kennedy muttered behind her. "Do you think we can slip out before they notice us?"

"I don't know. They're all looking right over here, Xander's beckoning. Maybe if we just stand really still for a moment they'll think they're hallucinating."

"What all of them?" Kennedy asked, sounding genuinely amused for the first time all day.

"We can hope." Willow smiled and that felt genuine too.

She really didn't want to sit with her friends right now, knowing that they all knew what she'd done. Buffy had seemed really upset with her earlier, what if she still was? Kennedy would want to know why, and then either Willow would have to tell her the truth or start another lie rolling. Or what if Faith spoke without thinking? She wasn't exactly Miss Congeniality or Miss Subtle either; and it was even possible she'd say something deliberately. Willow had dropped her in it earlier and Faith had been cool, but what if she was just biding her time?

"There are plenty of other tables, let's just say hello and then pick one of those." Kennedy suggested. "We didn't come with them, and in fact they didn't even bother inviting us so why are we worrying about this?"

"Can we do that?" It went against everything Willow believed in to not go and sit with Xander and Buffy, but they were on a date. A very uncomfortable date true, but… Great, now she was tied between wanting to avoid her friends and hide in their shielding depths.

"Yeah we can, like this." Kennedy took her hand again, nodded at their friends and pulled Willow to the bar. "Now we just don't make eye contact with them again for the rest of the evening."

"They may not happen that often, sweetie," Willow chuckled. "But dates with you are certainly never ordinary."

* * *

"What's up with them?" Xander nodded to where Kennedy and Willow had chosen a table as far from them as possible. "Do they not like us anymore?"

"Perhaps they just want some privacy, Xan," said Buffy, extremely thankful that the couple hadn't come to sit with them.

"Why?" Xander asked before coming up with his own theory. "Is she telling him about Oz?" he whispered.

Alex had gone to the bar for a fresh round of drinks, giving Buffy a minute to relax and send sideways glares at Faith and Robin who were deep in conversation about Deb Devenrowe with Giles.

"I don't know," Buffy admitted.

Kennedy and Willow didn't seem to be speaking much at all, as far as she could tell from across the room and with the loud music preventing any hope of eavesdropping. She was trying not to look in case she suddenly managed to lip-read her own name. She could almost feel the blast of green magicky power that might zoom her way should Willow take her betrayal to heart.

"Told me she was going to keep quiet after all," Faith quietly joined the conversation. "Decided not to rock the boat."

"Bit late to worry about that," said Xander. "The boats a-rockin', judging by Kennedy's face."

"Does she look angry or upset?" Buffy asked.

"Who, Kennedy?" Faith asked. She took a moment to stare straight at Kennedy, assessing her expression. "Actually, I'd say she was terrified or something. They're just sitting there and she's about to break into a sweat."

"Really?" Buffy turned to look now, but Alex was back with more drinks for everyone, blocking her view.

When Buffy turned to Faith again, she'd already gone back to her conversation with Robin. Alex sat down next to her with a (nice) big smile and Buffy smiled weakly back.

* * *

"So…" Willow began, but didn't know where else to go with the sentence as she hunched down in her chair, teeth worrying her bottom lip.

Kennedy was sat across from her and her hands were shaking. It was slight, very slight in fact, and Willow might not have even noticed if her glass hadn't been too full, but white beer foam making a path through the condensation gave her away.

She knew, didn't she? That had to be the answer to why she was trembling – anger. Kennedy was probably trying to control herself so she didn't make a big old scene in the bar.

Kennedy took a sip of her drink, set it back down and sort of shrugged herself back into her chair. "So." she agreed.

"You said you wanted to talk," Willow reminded her in a small voice.

"Yeah… I did," Kennedy nodded, licking her dry lips.

'_Well at least breaking up with me isn't easy for her,' _thought Willow, that had to mean something. Maybe not a lot right in this second, but something.

"Okay, this is silly." Kennedy cleared her throat, and leaning forward again she looked deep into Willow's eyes. "Earlier, with Bu… a friend… I was with someone earlier and I had a… well I wasn't thinking and it turned from one thing to another and then there was this… I think I had an epiphany."

"Okay," said Willow slowly, trying to decipher all of that. "And what did it reveal to you?"

"Willow, I…" Kennedy swallowed, still staring straight into her eyes, because that seemed important somehow and she groped across the table for Willow's hand, because holding it as she said the words seemed important too. Her knuckles hit something smooth and cold…

Willow jumped from her chair, squealing at the shock of icy cold Coke and several ice cubes hitting her crotch.

"Great," Kennedy muttered, jumping up too. "Just great."

* * *

Faith caught sight of the commotion on the other side of the room and her eyes bugged out as she tried to keep from laughing. "Did Kennedy just throw her drink over Red?"

"She did what?" Xander jumped half out of his seat to look.

"Oh God," Buffy muttered, keeping her head down.

"Actually, I think it was an accident." said Robin, who was facing the same way as Faith.

"Yeah, accident." Faith smirked devilishly. "That's what it must have been."

They were all looking over now, to where Willow was standing up and trying to wipe dry the soggy part of her pants. It wasn't working so well.

"I'll go and get her a towel." Alex offered, before excusing himself politely from Buffy and disappearing behind the bar.

"Kennedy looks pretty pissed," Xander observed from back in his seat. "Are you sure she didn't try and drown Willow deliberately?"

"She does look pretty annoyed seeing as she's not the one who took a drenching," Robin agreed.

"Willow doesn't look any happier than her." Buffy noticed.

Xander clapped his hands. "We need to make, like, some kind of team distraction effort before the tension between them reaches critical mass."

"Like loosen a valve or something to release some pressure," Faith agreed. "Before they start saying stuff they can't come back from."

Buffy took another quick look. "Well that's not likely when they're not even speaking to each other." The pair across the room did seem to be back to awkward silence as Willow accepted a towel from Alex. "But… I concur anyway."

"Right." Xander downed the rest of his bottle of beer and stood up, resolutely. "So, all guns blazing?"

"Maybe we should be more subtle," Buffy suggested, still in her seat and toying with her half empty bottle.

"Divide and conquer," said Faith. "Only way to break people. Well, that and torture."

Buffy and Xander both looked at her with appalled fascination, Giles looked slightly worried, and Robin – apparently the only one with half a sense of humour – was stifling a smile.

"You could just ask them to dance." Giles said, indicating the square of space by the deejay stand. The empty square of space.

"I don't know; I'd feel a bit self-conscious…" Buffy began, glancing at Faith.

"Well, I'm game. Been too long since these feet got to dancing." Xander rubbed his hands together. "I'll take Willow for a spin around the floor while you talk to Kennedy, Slayer a Slayer."

"Uh, that's a bad idea." Buffy was standing now, but definitely not liking Xander's plan.

"Why?" asked Xander.

"Does there have to be a reason every time?" Buffy asked irritably. "Fine, I don't like Kennedy, okay, she's too… enthusiastic."

"Enthusiasm is a crime now?" Robin chuckled, until Buffy's glare stopped it in his throat.

"Okay, you handle Willow and I'll handle Kennedy." Xander agreed easily.

"Yeah you wish." Faith smiled. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Enjoy your date." Buffy said dismissively and then she and Xander were off on their missions.

"What, but it was my…" Faith started to call after them before giving up with an exaggerated sigh when she realised they weren't listening.

"Don't take it personally Faith," Robin said gently from her side. "They're just used to acting as a duo when it comes to this sort of thing."

"That's it exactly," Giles agreed strongly. "Although I wonder if you've had a chance to speak to Buffy since this morning?"

"Nope, she still won't listen." Faith sniffed, trying to fake a lack of caring, and knocked back the remainder of her drink. "Got it into her head she already knows everything I'm gonna say anyway."

"Well maybe tonight, while everyone's more relaxed?" Giles pushed.

"Relaxed? What table are you sat at?" she asked with a slight grin. "No I think I should just leave it for another day and take her advice. Wanna dance babe?" she asked Robin.

"To this?" he grinned, cocking his head at the O-Town pumping out of the speakers.

"Hey when in the ass end of nowhere do what the locals… ain't doing," she finished with a wry look-around at the people sitting down.

Faith pulled him up by his arm and he allowed her to lead him to the small dance floor. It wasn't her sort of music at all, but she could dance to anything and look good doing it. So she did. Throwing her body into the fast beat and using it to clear her mind of everything that had happened since waking up that morning.

Buffy was being, well, her usual difficult self and right now Faith couldn't see a way of pushing past that. Every time today she'd started to think they were connecting, Buffy had done or said something to make it clear they weren't. Maybe Faith wasn't helping with that, maybe every time she opened her mouth it was making things worse, she didn't even know right now. All she knew was that she wasn't trying to.

The way things looked, Buffy really wasn't interested anymore. Sure they'd had fun the night before, but according to the blonde, that's all it had been. In fact she'd pretty much spouted Faith's own favourite post-screw line back to her. Was that deliberate? Except it couldn't be, because Faith had never used it on her, she'd never had the chance. Their one and only previous night together, Faith had left before Buffy had even woken up…

She stopped moving to the music._ 'Shit, shoulda known that was gonna come back to bite my ass.' _

"You okay?" Robin had slowed down his own not-so-bad dancing to look at her with concern.

"Yeah, drink's going to my head, not been used to it in a while," she lied and let her body catch the beat once more, thankfully the deejay was playing something a little more adventurous now there were people actually appreciating him.

The morning she'd left the Hyperion in LA she hadn't thought she'd be seeing Buffy again in a good long while. Like a ten years while, not three months later when her leaving like that might still be a raw memory.

But Buffy had been awake before her this morning, so surely if this was all about having a score to settle she'd have just not been there when Faith woke up. Tit for tat and all that.

It was all too much of a mess in her head right now, too much going on both inside and out of her brain for Faith to get a grip on any of it. If B would just talk to her and tell her what the deal was, maybe she'd have a chance of… what? Apologising, making things right, proving she wasn't a complete write-off despite all impressions.

Except it all came back to the same shit – Buffy wasn't giving her a chance to do any of that, and her attitude was just driving Faith to create even worse impressions. Which – even to her math-retarded brain – equalled a lose-lose situation.

Hiding it within her dancing she looked about for Buffy and found her at Willow's table still. Buffy was helping Red dry herself off with a towel.

Considering where she was wet, and Alex's face as he watched the two women, Faith felt a stab of jealousy in her gut. Buffy could be that familiar with Willow but she wouldn't get within arms reach of her, who she supposedly _loved! _

'_Screw it'_ she thought. _'I don't need B to feel good; I can do that all on my own.' _

Despite the contrary implication, she let the music move her closer to Robin and threw one arm around his neck, giving him a wide, wild smile as did so.

"You havin' a good time?" she asked.

"Uh huh." He nodded, grinning as he put his hands on her waist.

"Me too," she replied as she pushed her body against his trying to close out the rest of the world.

* * *

"I can't believe you kissed him like that!" Fen whispered to Dawn as they wandered through the fairground behind the boys.

"I was caught up in the moment," Dawn giggled. "He'd just won me a giant cuddly dolphin; it seemed like the thing to do."

"Well he didn't seem to be complaining."

"I know," Dawn looked around the blue snout of her dolphin at Reece. "This is real, right? I not going to wake up in a minute to find this dream date is just a… dream?"

"Nope. I'd pinch you to prove it, but I have my hands full. Face it Sunny D, your ships coming in. Now you just have to climb on board and ride the waves." Fen gave her a dirty grin to go along with her innuendo.

Blushing, Dawn changed the subject. "I can't believe Andrew gave you his prize."

Fen chuckled, shifting the weight of the Thing in her arms. "I know; I feel a little guilty now about making a fuss. I never expected him to be such a … gentleman, maybe, about it. The guys at school would have just laughed at my tantrum. Do you think Craig minded?"

Dawn looked around the snout again, this time picking Craig out of the crowd in front. "I don't think so. If he did, I think the way Andrew looked at him when he asked if it was okay, probably made up for any disappointment."

"I know, I thought they were about to stick they're tongues down each others throats too," she teased.

Dawn blushed again, she couldn't believe herself she'd so forcefully kissed Reece on the mouth when he'd presented her with the big prize. It had just seemed so natural. She'd wanted to kiss him and so she had.

It had been exhilarating to act on her instincts for once, and it had been much nicer than when Justin had kissed her that Halloween. Perhaps because this time didn't come with the anxiety of her first proper kiss. Or perhaps it was because Reece wasn't a blood-sucking undead fiend whose true desire was to turn her into one of his own.

Maybe kissing the good guys was always tonnes better than kissing the bad guys. Not that you could assume that from her sister's track record, but wasn't that just another reason to try things for herself instead of letting Buffy always tell her what was best.

"So are you going to kiss him again?" Fen prodded, her mischievous expression hidden by the plush toy she was hugging.

Dawn felt the chilly night grow warmer as she ducked her head. "I don't know, I'd like to, but I don't know if I can just… be that forward again, when it's not all spur of the moment, you know? But, I mean, he knows I'm okay with kissing him now right? So maybe if I just wait, he'll kiss me."

Fen frowned. "What sort of attitude is that Dawn? You can't just hang around hoping someone might give you what you want if you're patient enough. You have to be decisive and assertive and… and lots of other words that were invented to incite women to take charge of their lives. Seriously, not only do guys love it when girls make the first move, it's also the only way we have to keep control of the game."

Dawn shook her head. "Fen, what are you talking about?"

"If you let them make all the decisions you'll get stuck in the habit of following his lead. Sooner or later you'll find you can't even make a decision without checking its okay with him first. Do you want to be that girl, Sunny D?"

"No, of course not, but…"

"No buts." Fen cut her off. "You have to nip this kind of thinking in the bud early. You kiss that gorgeous man when you want to okay? Don't sit simpering on the sidelines waiting for him to pucker up and plant one your way."

"Oookay." Dawn dragged the word out to make maximum use of the syllables. "Except you're starting to sound like my sister."

"Yeah, well she probably knows what she's talking about. I mean, she's gotta have some experience, right?"

"Well yeah, but if you ask me, she has _too much_ experience." Dawn added, thinking about Angel and Spike and more recently _Faith._

"No such thing," Fen countered with a shake of her head. "Providing you're getting the experience from safe, reliable sources you can never have too much," she winked.

"Safe reliable sources?" Dawn giggled. "Doesn't that take the fun out of it?"

"No, testing positive for Gonorrhoea and/or having the whole school thinking you're a slut – that takes the fun out of it." Fen assured her, burying her nose in the orange plush fur of Thing as she spoke.

Dawn wasn't sure if she was supposed to jump to the conclusion she'd automatically jumped to and was hesitant as she asked as neutrally as possible, "You know someone who that happened to, huh?"

"Let's just say I had an eventful sophomore year," Fen chuckled. "But I've learnt from my mistakes and now you're getting the benefit of my wisdom. Reece seems like a honey though; considerate and stuff."

Dawn blushed _again. _"It's not like I'm thinking of… I was just talking about kissing him! You can't catch Gonorrhoea from kissing can you?"

"So you haven't even thought about it?" Fen laughed, swaying over enough to nudge Dawn's ribs again. "I mean, look at him. I've thought about it and I only met him a few hours ago."

"Well there might have been… some thoughts," she admitted. "I am _normal. _But I've never… kissing and…" she thought about RJ and the lunch break they'd spent in the utility closet. "… and touching-" she whispered "-is the furthest I've… you know."

"Well everyone's first time is their first time," Fen pointed out, still laughing. "And if I could go back in time and swap the boy I did it with for Reece, you wouldn't catch me hesitating."

"Really?" Dawn's eyes were wide as she stared at the back of watcher cadet's head. "But don't you think it's too soon?"

"For me, no." Fen shrugged. "But for you?" she shrugged again. "Everyone's got their own timeline, Sunny D. For some people living in the moment and trusting that burst of physical chemistry when they meet someone is enough; other people want to get to know the ins and outs of their chosen partner's medical history and family tree before they'll trust their instincts, and still others want a ring on their finger before they'll get biblical."

"So what type am I?"

"I don't know. To be honest I'm kinda surprised to learn you're still a virgin." As Dawn opened her mouth to protest, Fen added. "Not that I thought you were a slut or anything, but you have that whole daring, reckless side to you and you hang out with older people all the time so I figured you'd have been in a 'mature' relationship by now." She nearly dropped Thing as she tried to make quote marks with her fingers, hefting him back up she nudged Dawn again. "So which type do you think you are?"

"I'm not sure. Somewhere between one and two maybe. I'm all for reckless wanton abandon but I think I need at least a little knowledge of the person I'm abandoning myself to. I mean I don't think I could just meet someone at a club and take them home for sex, but if it was someone I already knew I liked and knew they liked me and we'd had, you know, at least one conversation about our lives and stuff, then maybe I could be impulsive, if the mood was right."

Dawn thought about what she'd said, did she mean it or was she just trying to sound cool in front of Fen? She thought she probably did mean it. She'd heard the stories of the consequences of Buffy's impetuous sex-related decisions for as long as she could remember – mostly through eavesdropping – and they were always at the back of her mind whenever she thought about boys that way.

Sooner or later though she was going to have to start taking her own chances or except her fate as a life long celibate.

And she'd be lying if she didn't admit that she was thinking of that kind of stuff more and more as time went by and Fen was certainly right about one thing – since she'd met Reece her initially innocent fantasies were getting dirtier and dirtier.

"Should we catch them up?"

"Oh!" Startled from her erotic thoughts, it was Dawn's turn to nearly drop her stuffed prize. "Uh yeah, I guess." She added, running awkwardly after Fen.


	14. Act 3:8

"Buffy I can dry myself." Willow pointed out, her voice high pitched as she tried grabbing the towel from the determined Slayer.

"I know but I can do it faster, ergo less chance of catching a chill." Buffy continued to rub the towel brusquely over Willow's crotch area.

"I… oh God… I know," Willow stammered. "But its… it's not cold, so not… oh… much chance of getting a… a chill in my…"

Fighting the friction of the towel, Willow gave up on reason and tried to wriggle away, keeping her legs as tightly together as she could.

Slayer strength forced the towel between them anyway.

"Will, stop being a baby," Buffy laughed.

"I'm not feeling like a baby right now." Willow squeaked. "Definitely all woman!"

That stopped a mortified Buffy dead. Slowly she withdrew the towel until she was clutching it comfortingly against her stomach.

"Right… sorry," she blushed. "I was just trying to help."

"And you were," Willow assured her, her breathing getting back to normal. "Just… vigorously."

"Right." Buffy said again, and then laughed a little too brightly. Not having anything to add she thrust the towel back to Alex. "Thanks."

"My pleasure," he replied wistfully, making Willow redden to her roots.

"Perhaps we should all sit down." She suggested, sinking weakly into her chair again. The seat was still a little wet, but the heat of her pants soon evaporated that.

"So how are things with Kennedy?" Buffy asked, deciding to just cut right though her embarrassment as she sat down next to her friend.

"Um… awkward." Willow admitted watching as her girlfriend danced with Xander for a second.

She glanced quickly at Alex, who had sat down opposite them, and decided she could speak somewhat freely in front of him. She wasn't quite sure why Alex was sticking so close to Buffy, it was almost like he thought they were on a date, but she was thankful he'd brought her something to dry off with – or she _had been_ until Buffy took over.

"So how goes it with you and Faith?" Willow returned, trying to keep the questions away from her. She was feeling bad at not being there for her best friend all day; she'd meant to stick close by but then things had turned crazy.

She was kinda surprised to even see the two Slayers out this evening, fully expecting them to have taken the opportunity of an empty house to get fully reacquainted with one another again. Even more surprising was Buffy peeking uneasily at Alex before not quite meeting Willow's eyes as she answered.

"We're… I don't know, normal for us I guess."

Was Buffy making a throat slitting gesture behind her curtain of dark blonde hair?

Willow's eyebrows scrunched down as she tried to figure out her friend's weird behaviour. Buffy subtly nodded her head sideways at Alex and it became clear. Buffy wanted to slit Faith's throat, but she didn't want the deputy sheriff to know of her homicidal tendencies.

"That bad?" Willow sympathised. "Not quite the start to the great big love affair you were hoping for, huh?"

Buffy glared daggers at her before smiling sweetly at Alex. "As sure as I am that you'll find all this girl talk riveting, I think Giles said something about needing to talk to you."

"Oh, what about?" Alex asked. Being able to see his nose for once, it was easy to see he smelled a rat. Well, he was nearly right.

"Something about a raccoon infestation here in town. He's really interested in it's, uh, possibilities for the, um, club." Buffy explained.

"Raccoon infestation?" Alex said with deep trepidation. "Excuse me ladies, I better go and see who your boss upset this time? Just holler if you need anything." He addressed Buffy before heading off to see Giles who was sitting alone.

"What's wrong with you?" Buffy asked in a semi-amused whisper as soon as they had the table to themselves. "Since when does stop talking…" Buffy made the throat cutting gesture again. "…mean say even worse stuff?"

"Since when are you and Faith a secret? It's not like Faith is a wanted fugitive anymore anyway, so why can't Alex know?" Willow stared after the big man. "And did he do something different with his hair, he looks different somehow?"

"We don't speak freely since I…" Buffy grimaced comically. "…started dating him."

Willow studied her before asking: "And since when have you been dating Alex, whom you have never shown the slightest interest in before, or now for that matter."

"Well…" Buffy was about to explain when Willow's eyes suddenly went wide with alarm. "What's up?"

"Oh rats." Willow shot to her feet, all kinds of panicked.

"Rats?" Buffy jumped up too. First raccoons and now rats; why did anyone want to live in the countryside?

"No, no not rats." Willow waved her hands over the table, capturing Buffy's attention as she started to turn around. "I just realised that I have to show you something in the bathroom."

"Show me something?" Buffy's eyes dubiously flicked up and down Willow's body. "Is this something to do with me towelling you down earlier?"

"No," Willow shook her head, starting to move away from the table. "I didn't mean show I meant tell. I have to tell you something, it's important, in the bathroom. Come with me… please."

"Okay," Buffy chuckled. "If it's that private you have to drag me away from the other private conversation we were having. But the bathroom's this way, Will." Buffy turned to lead the way.

"No this is a different bathroom…" Willow said quickly, but not quick enough.

Buffy stopped, the chuckle dying before it left her throat, her lips still in a mockery of amusement, frozen that way by pain. The room rushed away, leaving her focused on one small square of the dance floor, one that seemed to rush forward in contrast until it was horribly in focus right in front of her face.

It wasn't scary though, the room dimensions zooming around out of control. Familiarity diminished the dread and at least this time they both had their clothes on.

And they weren't in her bed, always a bonus.

"This is why I'm here with Alex." Buffy threw over her shoulder to Willow as she watched Faith kiss Robin while she humped, sorry, danced with him. "And before you say anything, I know I shouldn't be."

Willow came to turn Buffy gently from the spectacle before anyone noticed her staring. "Buff, I don't know what Faith is doing out there..."

Buffy gestured at the gyrating duo. "Well it looks to me like she's trying to get her…"

"I mean I know she wants to be with you." Willow cut her off quickly.

"Yeah I can see that, Will. It's as plain as her hand on his face, oh no wait, that's his ass."

Willow scanned the other patrons and quite a few were watching the dirty dancing with open shock on their faces. She was surprised with Robin. Not Faith. Willow figured Faith would quite happily dirty dance with a priest in the middle of Sunday Mass if she felt like it and not bat an eyelid at the hundred strong congregation that were damning her to hell for holding up Holy Communion or whatever it was Catholics did in their churches.

Robin she'd always thought would be a more restrained. After all, he was a high school principal, okay an ex-high school principal, but surely he hadn't lost all his principal principles when Sunnydale's collapse had buried his career. But then perhaps Robin had always been wild just beneath his staff room veneer or maybe Faith was just that good, one smooch was all it took to subdue all your inhibitions.

If that was true, they were going to be in for some very interesting nights at quiet little Barnies once the two slayers had gotten their acts together. Willow started chuckling at the thought of Buffy in Robin's position right now, but she thought it a little too well and ended up wishing someone would throw some more icy coke over her.

"I, ah, I think I'm gonna go dance with my girlfriend," she said, feeling guilty at the naughty thoughts of her best friend and Faith. "Why don't you ask Alex to dance? If you can't beat them...?"

"Good idea." Buffy stormed away from her.

"Nope, not one of my better ones." Willow realised too late.

Choosing not to go after her, Willow had to wonder about the merits of this idea too as she took a deep breath and made her way over to Kennedy and Xander.

* * *

Buffy approached the table, but paused behind Alex's chair. Neither of the men noticed her taking a few steadying breaths, shift her neck from left to right and roll her shoulders a few times; kinda like she did before sparring.

Making sure she was smiling, her hand hovered in the air before she resolutely brought it down onto Alex's shoulder.

He was speaking so earnestly with Giles that he missed it. "You see sir. I'm ever so sorry, but I did try and warn you."

"But why make up something like that?" Giles was looking flummoxed by whatever Alex was apologising for. "What's in it for them?"

"Well, mostly, just amusement." Alex gave a wry smile. "Seeing the city folk putting up with being powerless because they think a bunch of raccoons is terrorising the town – it's funny. Not to you sir, obviously." He added, still with a hint of a smile.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, letting her hand slide across Alex's shoulders to get his attention.

He twisted in his seat to smile up at her. "You and Willow all talked out?"

"It would seem there is no influx of raccoons," Giles told her tiredly. "Just simply that none of the locals will deign to work for us."

"Wow." Buffy kept her arm half around Alex, very aware it was there, as she looked around the bar. "This is what being in a leper colony must feel like."

"It's the trouble they must have gone to that amazes me," Giles shook his head. "It wasn't just one firm Xander spoke to. He tried at least four local numbers and they all told him about the Raccoons."

Alex started to laugh; Giles glared at him. "Sorry. It wouldn't be a hard trick for them to plot, Mr Giles. At least three of the men Xander called are probably sat around the back there right now."

"But why would they turn down the work in the first place?" Buffy asked. "Our money is as good as anyone's right? Or do Ohio have there own currency and all we have is LA dollars?"

Alex shrugged under her arm. "It's not your money, or even you, it's where you live. People don't like that camp. Strange things happen up there. Tools – sometimes whole bags of them – go missing. Things that shouldn't move… move; things that should… don't. Unnatural noises in the woods. Flashing lights at night. One kid I went to school with snuck in and got lost in the basement; he was gone three days."

"Wow." Buffy repeated, trying to look suitably creeped out. "We haven't experienced anything like that."

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, well _I know_ most of its just stories, probably started by the freaks who owned it before you did to keep people away. They weren't much for bonding with the locals. Some go back a century or two though; and those stories are woven into the history of this whole town. People are either too scared to work there or they just can't be dealing with the hassle of it."

"Well, whatever their silly suspicions, they shouldn't be allowed to get away with this." Giles huffed, angrily swigging from his beer.

"They won't." Alex promised, smiling at Buffy. "I'm sure it's against some law and now I know about it, I'll see what I can do."

"And as a thank you," Buffy smiled, rubbing his shoulder enticingly. "Would you like to dance?"

Alex's smile dropped. "Uh, actually Buffy, it's a nice offer, but I think I'm going to take Xander over to have a word with my cousin. See if I can't solve your electrician shortage tonight."

"Okay." Buffy said, feeling rejected yet again. "Maybe later?"

"Maybe," Alex smiled again as he stood up. "I still have to do my stint behind the bar."

He held her gaze for a moment or two and then gestured over his shoulder to where Xander was now dancing up a storm by himself. Buffy nodded slightly and he left, leaving her to slide into his vacated seat next to Giles.

Turning her head to the dance floor she noticed that you could tell Faith and Robin were two separate people again, not that it held a lot of comfort after their earlier display.

"Everything all right between Willow and Kennedy?" Giles asked conversationally.

"Uh huh." Buffy watched Robin say something to Faith, something she couldn't lip read, but from the way it made Faith laugh and run her hands over his broad chest, it must have been good.

"And Dawn," Giles continued his attempt to get her attention. "She's doing very well in her studies, or so she tells me. I must say I'm rather surprised you let her go out with Reece on a school night." He chuckled softly. "Actually I'm rather surprised you let her go out with him at all."

"Uh huh." Faith's arms wrapped around Robin's neck as she tilted her head to speak to him and one of his hands ran down the length of her back and back up again.

"And you and Faith, how are you getting along together?"

"Uh huh." Buffy's eyes burned into the side of Robin's head and she wished she was Superman. Or that he would turn around, catch her eye and realise he was living on borrowed time.

Giles made one last exasperated attempt. "You two had a nice shag last night then, did you?"

"Uh huh." Buffy watched Robin's hands rubbing circles on her girlfriend's hips and, but wait, what the hell..? She whipped her head around to face her Watcher. "Giles, did you just say shag? And in the context of my love life?"

"Well as an adult it's not a word forbidden from my vocabulary." He reminded her. "And I would like nothing more than to leave your love life to you, but I am bound by oath – and love – to help you if you should so need it and let me tell you… you _so _need it."

"Hey, Valley Giles!" Buffy smiled at him with affection, choosing to ignore what he was actually trying to say. "I always knew that pompous British accent was just a put on to make me think you were important." He glared at her. "I'm kidding."

"It's the blasted girls; they watch nothing but Californian teen dramas all the time." Giles grumbled.

Buffy nodded absently but her eyes had already drifted back towards the dance floor.

"So, Buffy, whilst taking great pains not to overstep the boundaries of our relationship, I find myself infuriated enough to ask: just what on earth is going on with the pair of you now?"

"Nothing." Buffy have a little shrug as she watched Faith writhe to the music, using Robin's left leg like a pole – not that she was swinging from it, but there was a certain amount of grinding.

"I can see that." Giles sighed. "I was wondering why."

She turned her head to him with an eyebrow raised as she gestured at the dance floor. "Do you really think I can compete with that?"

"Compete?" Giles' brow furrowed as he watched Robin trying to keep up with Faith's dancing. "Well I'd rather not have to witness it, but yes I suspect if you were out there, you wouldn't just be jiggling around with a smug smile on your face."

Buffy laughed a little. "He's not that bad."

Giles covered her hand that was lying on the table. "I was trying to be supportive."

"Thanks." Buffy reversed the position of their hands, patting the back of his gently. "I appreciate it."

"So that only leaves the big question of: Why is Robin getting the full benefits of… of whatever kind of dance Faith is doing, while you're sitting here with me? Have you spoken with her yet today?"

"Yes lots." Buffy glanced over again and felt her heart stop when she saw Faith was looking straight back at her. "Lots." She repeated, her eyes stuck on Faith's.

Faith smiled at her, just a slight seductive curve of her lips. Buffy was about to smile back but the moment was over and Faith's face was buried in Robin's neck again.

"I don't mean have you exchanged syllables while in the presence of one another. I mean have you really _talked. _Have you asked her why she didn't come home last week, have you asked her what she's been doing, how she's been coping…with her new freedom."

"She has a parole officer for that," Buffy said quietly, waiting, hoping, Faith would flash her another one of those smiles, hoping next time it would give her the courage she needed to walk over there and cut in. "One she gets on real well with too."

"I didn't mean in general, although I'm sure that would mean at least something to Faith. I meant in relation to the two of you. Buffy, your relationship will be unable to progress healthily until you've both dealt with the issues of the past."

Across the dance floor Faith wrapped her arms around Robin's neck and kissed him again. Buffy closed her eyes against it and drew in a deep calming breath.

As she opened her eyes she turned completely in her seat to face Giles, giving the back of his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Will you stop being so gloomy?" she grinned at him. "Faith and I _are_ dealing, and just because we don't do it by the book doesn't mean our way isn't healthy. Everyone's just making a big thing out of something that really isn't. So Faith and I have had a couple of one night stands, so what? It doesn't mean we're destined to spend the rest of our lives together. And why would either of us want to be tied down, now of all times, when we suddenly have this whole new life opening up ahead of us? Now I'm not the sole defender of the Hellmouth and Faith's not in prison we can finally start living." Her eyes fell to table top. "And I guess separately is as good a way as any."

"Buffy," Giles said softly, shifting his hand so that he was holding her fingers from the middle knuckles down. "Please go and talk to her."

"No Giles," Buffy forced a smile onto her face. "I don't want to talk, talking doesn't get anyone anywhere. It's time for action, a… a moving on action," she told the middle distance somewhere to the right of his ear. "An action of the me moving on kind. I've learned my lesson, which is good right; it's what you're always trying to get me to do: learn my lessons. And now I know I'm not compatible with souled vampires, unsouled vampires, military men and hot chicks with superpowers."

Giles smiled despite himself. "Well that rather narrows your choice to men who aren't in the military, all women who aren't Slayers and several thousand species of demon."

"Passing on the demons; slime does not turn me on. No, I think what I need now is just a nice normal guy," Buffy mused. "Someone who gets me, someone who I can let share my world, and who isn't going to freak because I'm a little bit stronger than they are, you know. So maybe someone older, because older men are always more confident right?"

"Well, experience does come with age, so…" Giles nodded as he tried to discreetly let go of Buffy's hand. He was feeling rather disturbed that Buffy was discussing her intimate life so candidly with him, actually he was disturbed by the feelings he was getting from Buffy discussing her intimate life so candidly with him.

"Oh experience, I like the sound of that," Buffy grinned mischievously, her fingers curling around his and cutting off his escape. "Someone who knows his way around a woman's body."

"Um, yes." Giles smiled, teeth gritted, and pulled his hand back with some force. "It's a pity you can't meet a man who's only twice your age for once."

Buffy's hand was pulled from the surface of the table as he jerked away and once it was empty, gravity dropped it onto his knee… which she squeezed.

"Maybe I've already met him," Buffy flashed him a coy smile.

"And maybe I'm going to hell," Giles muttered as he watched her hand slide up his thigh. "Buffy, I'm very flattered, but our relationship is not and never has been of a s…" Giles swallowed hard. "Of that kind of nature."

"Things change," she grinned impishly, her eyes instinctively falling to his lap.

"Oh good lord." Giles scrambled up from his chair, going bright red as he pulled the hem of his beige sweater down further. "Look, my dear, I know you are hurting right now and you think some… classic comfort will make you feel better, but…"

"It's okay," Buffy bypassed the chairs he was trying to keep in front of him and pressed herself to his chest. "This feels weird, I know, we've always been all 'no touchy' because of that whole father/daughter vibe we had going, but that's not real." She said softly, looking up at him from beneath her lashes. "But this might be, Rupert."

She leaned up to kiss him as he gave himself a good talking too, as he told himself over and again that this was crossing a line that was far worse than simply betraying his duty, this was an unforgivable betrayal of the girl he'd considered a surrogate daughter for many years.

Even as he was telling himself all of that, another part of him was telling him to get over himself. She was twenty-two years old, not a child; and he had friends older than he who had wives younger than she. He could in no way take advantage of her physically and, well, emotionally she might be a mess but how was withholding the comfort she desired going to help make her feel better.

Ultimately, it was wrong, he was in no doubt over that, but there was no blood between them and he hadn't kissed anyone in over a year and half. Wrong didn't seem so important in the face of all that.

As it happened, just as he talked himself in it, she pulled away, her features scrunching up.

"Rupert? I can't sleep with someone called Rupert," she started giggling as she slapped him playfully (painfully) on the chest. "I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face."

He was at once relieved and insulted as she stepped away, giggling.

"I think moaning a name like _Buffy_ in the heat of passion would probably kill my mood too," he told her nastily, but only because he was still so flustered by what he'd almost done.

"Giles," she pouted.

"You started the name calling," he rejoined mildly.

"Sorry." Buffy sheepishly smiled. "For all of it. I guess I'm a little…" she shrugged. "…at the moment. But hey thanks for not pushing me away and making me feel even worse. I think one more rejection tonight and I might have started smashing the bar up."

"It was my pleasure." Giles winced at his choice of words.

"I remember." Buffy smirked; it turned to an all out smile as Giles turned pink and looked away. "But I promise to totally forget from this second on, if you'll promise to forget I ever threw myself at you in the first place. Deal?" she held her hand out.

Giles shook it gently. "Deal."

* * *

"We'll have to go back soon." Reece gave Dawn an apologetic smile. "I don't want to keep you out too late."

"But it's only…" Dawn checked her watch. "Nine-thirty. That's not late even on a school night."

Reece showed his perfect white teeth as he grinned. "I know, but Mr Giles and your sister will be getting back from their night out around eleven and I don't want you getting in trouble. Or me," he winked before kissing her quickly on the forehead. "Besides, going home doesn't mean we have to call it a night, does it?"

"We'll have the house to ourselves until they get back." Andrew said absentmindedly.

He was standing close to Craig, trying to will the nerve to hold his hand the same way Reece was holding Dawn's. It wasn't the fear that Craig didn't want him to that was holding him back, just plain old neurosis. His fingers would start to inch towards Craig's and then Andrew would realise what he was about to do and they'd clench into a fist again.

"There you go then," Reece smiled. "Going home doesn't have to mean the end of the evening; you can invite me in for coffee."

"Dork." Dawn giggled "You live there too remember?"

"Well then, you don't have to worry about me saying no do you?" Reece winked. "You know I don't think I've ever been called a dork before."

"Been called lots worse though, ain't ya." Craig smirked.

He was still riding the high of equalling Reece on the crossbow stall. Beating him would have been better, but as it turned out they'd both shot all four of their darts into the heart circle. Reece's disgruntled respect had been a better prize than the stuffed toy – not that he needed respect from Reece or any other living person to make him happy – but knowing what it cost Reece's ego to give it, that was something to treasure.

Now, if Andrew would just quit mucking about and take his hand, he could go home a very happy man indeed.

"Yeah, my car's coming soon anyway," Fen said, looking at her own watch. "Igor gets off at ten-thirty and he has to have time to lock the garages up and set the alarms."

"Igor?" Craig laughed.

"Our man servant," Fen explained with an impish grin.

"His name's Esau not Igor," Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Hey, he finds it endearing." Fen looked about them. "So one more ride? Who's up for it?"

Reece looked about them too, taking it upon himself to choose. He nodded a little, "Big Wheel. Only proper way to end a night at the fair."

With an arm loosely around Dawn's shoulders, he led them all to the foot of the Ferris Wheel. It was right on the lake's edge, close enough that the cars on one side were actually out over the water.

Dawn's eyes widened, she was so not a fan of heights. "Are you sure? There's others we haven't been on."

"I'm sure," Reece smiled at her, "that there is nothing more romantic than a ride on the Big Wheel. But if you'd prefer another one…"

His smiling blue eyes were all the assurance Dawn needed. "No, this one's good."

"We can't take the toys on." Andrew reminded them as they crowded together near the front of the line. "And it says no single riders."

"Flip for it?" Craig asked, producing a coin.

"Well Dawn and I are definitely going on," Reece said. "But if you three want to flip for it…"

"Well I'm definitely going on," Fen said. "Not trying to be difficult here, but… okay so I'm just being difficult, sue me, you're all going to go home together, throw some romance my way one of you."

"Shall I?" Craig asked Andrew with a smile, holding up the coin.

"No, that's okay." Andrew took the Dolphin and the Thing – he kinda wanted a minute to cuddle it anyway, after all Craig had won it for him and he'd graciously given it to Fen before he'd barely had a chance to touch it. "You go on with Fen; you're probably more romantic than me anyway."

The first people in line were already seated and now Dawn and Reece paid and climbed into their carriage.

"So you don't even want a shot at the romantic ride?" Craig asked Andrew, frowning a little.

"What?" Andrew hugged the toys tighter.

"You seem to be doing everything in your power to avoid it." Craig shrugged. "Or to avoid me anyway."

"I'm not."

The next car swung down and Fen excitedly climbed in. Her excitement level dropped when she realised neither Craig nor Andrew were climbing in next to her. "Guys!"

"I get the impression you like me," Craig continued speaking urgently. "I've been getting that impression since I got here, and I finally thought today when you asked me out you were ready to admit it. Was I wrong?"

"No, no, I don't think you are," Andrew stammered uncomfortably.

"Guys!" Fen shouted even louder.

Craig looked irritably over his shoulder at her, but that was all. "So what's your problem? Holding my hand in public? I can get that, I'm not an idiot. I know it's easier for me 'cause I'm out, and I'm on holiday, no one knows me here, is that it?"

The thought hadn't even occurred to Andrew. He'd always been on the outside looking in; being there because he was holding hands with a boy wouldn't be any different to all the other reasons. It was holding hands with _anyone_ that felt foreign and difficult.

When Andrew didn't answer, Craig went on, "I won this stupid Thing for you-" he gave the toy a hard prod. "-and you gave it away straight away."

"Fen was upset and I didn't think you'd mind!" Andrew hugged it even closer to his chest. "It's not that I didn't appreciate it."

Craig didn't mind, in all honesty. He'd thought it was really sweet of Andrew to hand it over to Fen because no one had won her anything, but he was pissed off with the mixed signals he'd been getting over the last few days.

"And now you don't want to go on the Big Wheel with me, and you're happy to let me go on with someone else. Just tell me Andrew, am I wasting my time thinking something is going to happen between us or not?"

"GUYS!" Fen shouted over to them at the top of her voice. "Oh crap!"

They both turned to look in time to see a big football player type climb into the carriage next to Fen wearing an enthusiastic leer. Before either of them could go to her rescue the ride started to turn again. Fen glared down at them and they both turned away uncomfortably.

"Whoops." Craig muttered.

"She'll be okay," Andrew tried to reassure himself. "He looked nice."

"Sexual assault on fair rides ain't common," Craig said confidently, before turning a worried look Andrew's way. "Is it?"

"I don't think so."

They looked upwards to see Fen talking convivially to her fellow rider and shared a dual sigh of relief.

"You never answered my question," Craig pointed out. "And I'm not usually this pushy, but I've never fancied a bloke who didn't know what he wanted before. So just tell me what you…"

Andrew stepped forward, aiming to kiss Craig there and then to show him what he wanted, but the plush toys got in the way, making him rebound off of Craig's chest instead.

"What the..?" Craig started, but Andrew grabbed his arm before he could finish and almost dragged him around the back of the ride to where the wall edged the lake.

Letting the prizes slip from his arms, Andrew surged forward again. His hands gripped Craig's shoulders and he kissed him. He kept their lips pressed together, enjoying the softness and warmth of Craig's against his own for a minute or more before he pulled back, panting not through lack of oxygen but the adrenaline surge.

"That's what I want," he said, and he'd never heard his voice sound like that before.

"Good," Craig was panting too. "Me an' all."

He kissed Andrew now, and this time his lips applied the right pressure to make Andrew's spring open. It was a little awkward at first, their noses bumped continuously, but after a minute they were devouring each others mouths like they'd been doing it a lifetime.

* * *

Faith knew the second Buffy had walked onto the dance floor and she tensed in Robin's arms. The first slow song of the night had just started playing and she waited for the blonde to approach her and cut in. She held her breath, her heartbeat picking up as she readied herself for the moment.

Didn't happen.

Breathing again, Faith turned her head, expecting Buffy to be standing close by, staring at her, waiting for her to be the one to ask.

Buffy wasn't waiting; she was slow dancing with Xander.

"You okay?" Robin asked, his arms tightening around her.

Faith shrugged, forcing him to loosen up a bit. "Yeah, I'm just not normally into these kindsa songs."

"Well you're doing fine." He assured her, resting his chin lightly against her head.

"Yeah." She murmured into his shoulder. "I'm doing real fine."

* * *

The dark surface of the lake glittered with the reflected lights of the Ferris Wheel, making the small waves – churned up by who knew what – sparkle a myriad of colours.

Dawn thought of underwater creatures like the one from the Black Lagoon, or the Loch Ness Monster – or their very own South Bay Bessie – swimming around down there, attracted to the bright luminance created by humanity indulging itself. Were there such things as underwater vampires? Looking like a cross between a Turok-han and an alligator maybe?

Dawn shuddered at the thought.

"Are you cold?" Reece asked and he drew the hand he was holding between both of his to check for himself.

It was chilly, up here so far above the lake. The wheel had already made one full revolution and was slowly climbing back to the top over the water – hence Dawn's preoccupation with what might be lurking beneath. The higher they swept, the cooler the gentle breeze felt against her cheeks.

"It's colder than on the ground," Dawn said, not wanting to admit she was shivering more from the thought of sea monsters than the fresh October night.

"I can't really take my jacket off in this thing." Reece sat forward as he assessed how difficult that would be. "But, how's this?" Leaning back once more, he fit his arm snugly around her shoulders.

"Much better," Dawn leaned into him, smiling, and not really meaning the warmth of his body so much. Although that was nice too. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he gave her his gorgeous smile. "In fact I should probably be thanking you. It's not every day I have the privilege of keeping a beautiful woman from getting a chill." Giving her a subtle wink, he hugged his arm around her a little tighter.

"Really?" Dawn couldn't help the doubt in her voice, you only had to look at him to realise beautiful women were probably queuing around the block to let him warm them up.

"Really." he grinned.

"Soooo," she drew the word out, wondering how to ask her question without being too obvious. "There's not, like, a string of girl's waiting at home for you to save them from the freezing British winter? Not that I'm prying or anything," she added quickly. "Just curious."

Reece chuckled. "Most of the girl's I know are either Watcher cadet's – therefore independent to a fault and would rather die from hypothermia than accept my help in keeping the chill blains away – or they're girls I've grown up with – and all far too attached to their horses to give me the time of day."

"Oh," Dawn snuggled even further into his side, smiling secretly to herself as they neared the ground before curving upwards again.

"And besides," Reece continued. "The winter here is going to be a far cry colder than what I'm used to, so I'm told, and so I should probably stick around to offer my warm-up services to a girl here."

"Well that would be the gentlemanly thing to do," Dawn agreed, looking out across the lake instead of at Reece in case he noticed her blush. "So is there a girl? I mean, do you have someone in mind to receive these services?"

While she waited for the answer, the ride stopped three quarters of the way to the top to let people at ground level off. She sneaked a look at Reece's face to see him smiling at her.

"There may be someone," he nodded.

"Really?" she asked again, with no less hesitancy, but a stronger smile.

"Really," he repeated, leaning in to kiss her gently.

As her eyes slipped closed the wheel started to turn again, but the flipping sensation in Dawn's stomach had nothing to do with that.

* * *

When Buffy had stomped towards her friends, her plan was to pull Robin off of Faith and throw him off the dance floor, and yes, she meant literally, but halfway there she knew she couldn't do it.

Chucking Robin about wasn't really fair, after all. He was a nice guy, considerate enough even to make sure she was okay with them going out. Not before he'd actually asked Faith out, sure, but then Faith did tend to incite that kind of spontaneity in people.

People who weren't called Buffy anyway, she thought, as she danced with Xander.

Another deciding factor in her own lack of spontaneity was Faith's most likely reaction. Cutting in only ever had a happy ending if the other person wanted to dance with you in the first place. Faith hadn't asked her to dance at all tonight. Not even as friends, so to speak.

Back in the day, if she and Faith had happened to be in The Bronze at the same time, dancing would have occurred, and always Faith was the one who gave the nod or the wink or the nudge that got Buffy's butt on the floor. Tonight there had not been one nod, one nudge, one wink, nothing.

"So how's it going with Alex?" Xander asked, breaking her thoughts.

"He looks nice without his beard," she shrugged.

"Nice enough to not let him down easy at the end of the night?"

"Actually, I think he kind of already let me down easy," she admitted. "He didn't want to dance with me."

"I don't think it was a case of he didn't want to." Xander grinned as they moved to the music. "I mean he shaved his beard off for you; that's a pretty big statement. Maybe he just realised you've been kinda distracted all night."

"I have not."

"Buff, you're dancing with me. I can tell because your hands are on my shoulders and my feet are on your feet and yet your eyes are about ten feet away."

"No they're not they're right here," Buffy lifted a hand to point at her eyes.

"You know what I mean." Xander danced her around in a ninety degree angle and her neck started to ache from the twisting. "See?" he chuckled.

"God," she groaned, turning her head so she didn't look like an owl, she buried her face in his shoulder. "This is what they mean by whipped, isn't it?"

"Who's they?"

"The people who use words like whipped." She lifted her head to smile pathetically at him.

"If it's any consolation, I've seen her looking over a few times too." Xander told her.

"Yeah, it is." she smiled. "Is she looking over now?"

"No."

"Oh."

They danced in silence for the rest of the song and the next was less love ballad, more sexy Latin pop.

"Watch my feet," Buffy warned playfully as they continued to dance close to the faster music.

"I can't watch your feet, salsa's all about _feeling_ the music," he grinned at her.

"Remember I can hurt you."

He put a little more space between their bodies as a precaution and, rolling her eyes, she drew him closer again.

"Buffy, there's something I need to tell you." Xander said seriously after a minute.

"You're gay?" she guessed, smiling softly.

"No!" He stepped away from her completely. "Where'd that come from?"

"Um, you kissing Andrew." She caught his hands and pulled him closer yet again. "Pretty big giveaway."

"No! No that was not a giveaway, that was a nothing." Xander tried to explain himself. "He was just there and kissing happened; it didn't mean anything!"

"Okay," she said dubiously. "So does kissing just happen a lot when Andrew's there?" she asked, trying to understand.

"Well it's never happened before and I don't plan on it ever happening again, so no, not as a rule."

"So what happened this morning?"

"I don't know, evilness? Maybe you and Faith getting hot and sweaty all night released some kind of sexy pheromone that made me horny beyond all straight reason." He saw her frown. "Sorry."

She shrugged. "It wasn't all night, we fell asleep before the sun came up. So what did you want to tell me?"

He pulled a face, the kind of face that said whatever he was about to tell her was harder than admitting he was gay. "Faith pissed me off earlier and I kinda said some stuff that you probably wouldn't have wanted me too."

Buffy went cold and stopped dancing. "What did you say, Xander?"

"Not a lot," he said quickly. "Just how she broke your heart when she left LA without saying goodbye…"

"Xander!"

"And that she broke it all over again when she ran off from prison," he added, even quicker. "And that she was selfish, and I might have suggested that it was a mistake for her to ever come back here." He winced at her expression.

"Xander!" she repeated angrily, and it was her stepping back this time.

"She provoked me!" he defended himself.

"How?"

"She was being all nice." He stared down at her non-moving feet.

"Yeah," Buffy sighed, causing Xander to look back up. "I keep riding her for that today too."

"It's because we're not used to it," he grinned tentatively and she chuckled. "So are you mad at me?"

"Yes." She nodded. "But I'm madder at myself so I guess you're off the hook for now."

"Should we dance some more then?" he offered his arms again.

As she stepped into them she came up with another dastardly plan. It was probably a really bad idea, but she'd let Xander be the final judge.

"In light of what you just told me… Will you do me a favour?"

"What is it?" he asked, his slight guilt not enough to make him rash.

Buffy glanced over to where Faith had gone all Shakira on Robin and she felt the green fire burn her insides. "Help me make her jealous, just for five minutes, please?"

She batted her eyelashes at him with a coy smile, but they weren't in tenth grade anymore and he shook his head immediately.

"Not a chance. If I had a death wish I'd just drink as much as you and Willow think I do, not put myself between two pissed off Slayers." He grinned slyly at her. "Now if you two make nice and then want me to get between you - that I could handle." She squeezed her fingers into his arms making him wince. "Buff, I'm not doing it."

"Yeah, I think you are, for that comment alone." She told him, sliding her hands from his upper arms to around his neck. Dancing forward she pushed herself so that one of his legs was between hers.

"This is sexual harassment." He informed her weakly.

"Oh shut up and enjoy it." She grinned.


	15. Act 3:9

"Uh Will." Kennedy nodded her head to the side and Willow looked to see what she meant. "Any explanation?"

"Xander and Buffy?" she asked, her eyes going wide at the way her two best friends were dancing. "I've no idea."

Kennedy shook her head, dismissing the pair and turned her attention back to Willow's bright green eyes. "You look beautiful tonight," she murmured.

She didn't think Willow would have even heard her above the music, but her eyes grew even brighter and her lips curled into a cute little shy smile.

"I'm sorry I acted like an ass this morning." Kennedy said next.

Willow's smile fell away and her lower lip trembled into a pout just as she looked away.

They'd been dancing comfortably ever since Willow had come to find her, but now she stiffened in Kennedy's arms. Frustrated, Kennedy stiffened right back until they were moving like two wooden blocks to the sensuous beat.

"What now?" she asked evidently annoyed. "Did my apology offend you somehow or do you just not want to make up?"

Willow looked back at her quickly. "I do want to make up, but you have nothing to apologise for… we're all good here, really, I promise."

"I don't think so." Kennedy shook her head slightly, desperately trying to read the signals from Willow's voice and expression, but she couldn't, and that scared her more than anything.

"You don't?" Willow squeaked. "Why?"

"You don't seem okay?"

"What… what makes you think that?" Willow burbled, not meeting Kennedy's eyes. "Because you're wrong, I'm am okay, very okay, so maybe it's you that… that isn't okay… okay?"

"Maybe you're right," Kennedy said quietly. "Maybe I'm not okay."

"What?" Willow's eyes grew big with fear. "Why aren't you okay?"

Kennedy looked over Willow's shoulder to where Faith was dancing with Robin. "I don't know how Buffy can put up with that. She's crazy about that woman and she's just letting her kiss someone else right in front of her. I couldn't do that."

"Well… well maybe she's just trying to be mature about it." Willow said carefully. "After all violence doesn't solve everything."

"I'm not talking about her putting the hurt on Robin. I just don't know how she can stand to be around it. I couldn't. I'd have to get as far away as possible. I couldn't watch the woman I love be with someone else." Kennedy looked Willow in the eye again, a slight smile relaxing her tense expression. "In case you were wondering."

"No, no, I wasn't wondering that. Why would I be? I have no reason to wonder because you have no reason to leave; so wondering… surplus to requirements." Willow said quickly.

Kennedy groaned, realising that Willow had totally missed the declaration she'd included in her little speech. She pulled Willow close again as she tried to think up another way to voice her feelings.

Willow breathed her sigh of relief into Kennedy's neck. She was feeling terrible and starting to feeling her earlier decision was not the right way to go, but was admitting everything a better way to go, or just as bad? At this point, there didn't actually seem to be a right way, all ways could lead to Kennedy leaving it seemed.

Unable to find the answers right now, Willow made do with holding Kennedy tight as they danced.

* * *

Dawn opened the front door with her key and stepped aside just in time to avoid Goorzar's welcome. Reece, not expecting it, was used as a jump off point to Andrew and staggered into the door clutching his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Dawn couldn't keep the chuckle from her voice as she reached out to touch his arm.

"Yes, no thanks to the demon," Reece rolled his shoulder a few times. "How did the little juggernaut avoid you?"

"There's a trick to it. Whenever you enter a house with Andrew or Kennedy – don't stand in the doorway."

Dawn lead the way inside, ignoring the commotion behind them as Goorzar discovered her daddy kissing another man. Not that she'd ever seen him kiss her mommy, but from the shrieking, it sounded like there were issues.

"No one's back yet," she observed, flicking on the television.

"Good," Reece smiled.

"Oh yeah?" She raised her eyebrow flirtatiously, she hoped.

Her conversation with Fen was still at the top of her mind, hardly surprising considering she'd shared several more kisses with Reece since then, and each one more comfortable than the one before. It wasn't like she was planning on jumping his bones or anything, but he did make her feel more… womanly, than anyone ever had before. It was nice, feeling mature like this, and came with a surge of confidence that she hadn't expected.

"I meant because neither of us will be in trouble." He came close enough to tilt her chin up so she was staring into his smiling blue eyes. "Anything good on?"

"Huh?" Her knees went all jellified again as his eyes nearly induced a swoon.

"You're absolutely lovely, Dawn Summers," he murmured before placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

"She had a right hold on my hair, did you see?" Craig came through the front door, wincing as he rubbed his scalp. "I thought she liked me."

"She does," Andrew insisted, hovering as close to Craig as he could without riding on his shoulders. "I think she was just a little confused."

"I get confused a lot, but I don't go around attacking people because of it."

"I know, but it's the only way she can express herself. She only knows a few words and she gets frustrated. Perhaps, even, she was trying to… to show that she approved. We don't know much about her species. That could have been her way of… of…" Andrew stuttered to a stop, not even sure what he was trying to convince Craig of.

"Welcoming you into the family," Reece supplied.

Craig glared at him. "Great, what's she going to do if she sees us in bed together, bite half my face off as a moving in gift?"

Andrew had gone a bright red, Dawn felt like she had too. She shared a look with Reece, who grinned playfully as he asked,

"Sorry, did you think Ms Rosenburg and Kennedy do nothing but snog?"

Dawn blushed even brighter, remembering something about a pierced tongue. "No, it's just embarrassing having to hear about it."

Reece wrapped his arms around her. "Sex is only embarrassing if you think it is. They like each other, they want to do something about it, they're both consenting adults – why not?"

He looked up from Dawn's hair to see that Craig and Andrew were already back to enthusiastically kissing on the sofa.

"Of course, that doesn't mean I want to witness it first hand." When they didn't take the hint, he tried, "Lads?"

They were too engrossed in each other to take the blindest notice of him. As Dawn saw Craig's hand wandering over Andrew's jeans, she pulled away from Reece quickly, grabbing his arm and jerking him towards the kitchen.

They were both laughing as they pushed through the swing door.

"I'm all for gay love," Dawn giggled. "But gay porn I can do without."

"Here here," Reece chuckled, sitting on one of the kitchen chairs.

"So," Dawn realised they were alone, like properly alone, for the first time all day in the quiet of the kitchen. "Uh, did you want that coffee?"

"I don't really drink coffee much." Reece wrinkled his nose.

Dawn mentally catalogued it under 'new cute Reece expressions'.

"I wasn't even allowed to drink it until Buffy came back from the dead, and then I think the gang figured there were worse things to keep me up at night." Reece chuckled and she asked, "Do you want tea instead?"

"No thank you, I think the, what do you call it, Big Gulp? at the cinema and the hot chocolate at the fair have me hydrated enough for now." Reece sat sideways on his chair, stretching his legs out. "But I'll sit with you while you have a cup."

Dawn stood awkwardly at the sink. She didn't really want a drink either, but if she didn't have one, would Reece take that as his cue to go to bed? For a second she felt annoyed that the boys were in the living room. If they'd gone somewhere else to fool around, she could have suggested watching a little television together on the couch.

In the end, she grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and went to sit next to Reece at the table. There was a cracking sound as she broke the seal that seemed to heighten the silence between them; and for the small sip she took, the accompanying gulp seemed really loud, embarrassing her.

"Did you have fun tonight?"

She looked up quickly as Reece spoke. "Uh yeah, yeah I did. Lots of fun. I'd forgotten how enjoyable nearly barfing could be." She winced. "Not that I enjoy barfing, or that the whole evening made me want to barf. Am I saying barf too much for a date?" She winced again. "Not that I thought this was a date, I mean, you shouldn't just go around assuming stuff like that, should you? And if it wasn't, a date that is, then I'm totally cool with that, you know. Just 'cause we kissed doesn't mean we have to go steady or anything. Faith used to kiss people all the time, sometimes just to say hello. Not me, I don't mean she kissed me…"

Reece was up on his feet, and Dawn's face dropped as she realised her insane babbling was making him leave. He'd only asked if she'd had fun, why couldn't she have just said yes and then shut her mouth?

Reece walked to the other side of her chair and then looked down expectantly. When she just looked back, not sure what he was asking, he held out his hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet like he had in the cinema.

"Where are we going?"

"Obviously this kitchen is making you uncomfortable, so we're going outside," he said softly.

He used the key on the hook to unlock the kitchen door and lead the way out to the picnic bench. As he sat down on one side, the way he was holding her hand gave her no option but to sit next to him. Her body had gotten used to the heat in the kitchen and she began shivering immediately; until his arm went around her back, hugging her close to his side.

"Tonight is the most fun I've had on a date in a long time too," he said quietly, his mouth close to her ear.

"Cool," she said a little too loud. "I mean, not that…"

He cut her off with a kiss.

"Relax, or we're going to run out of places that don't make you uncomfortable," he grinned.

She smiled, ducking her head a little. "Sorry, I've just never met anyone like you before."

"Like me?"

"Anyone who… never mind," she blushed.

He didn't push her for an answer. "Let's talk about something else then. What do you want to be when you grow up?" he teased.

Dawn chuckled. "If Buffy had her way I'd never be allowed to grow up, but say the dream of getting out of her mom-like clutches ever came true… I don't know. A million things, I guess. I used to want to be a teacher, when I was little, but now I'm older and I know what teachers have to go through," she grinned. "I still like the idea of long vacations though. Or I might be a translator, Giles says I have that gene that makes it easy to pick up languages, and I could make a lot of money if I worked for the Russian Ambassador or something. Plus I'd get to do lots of travelling, which would be fun."

"I've known what I was going to be since I was six," Reece shared. "Don't misunderstand me, I was lucky, I loved the Academy and my destiny has never felt like the burden it has for Pete, but sometimes I wonder what I would have gone for if it hadn't already been foretold. I have friend's on the outside who are going off to university right now and just taking any course that seemed interesting, they still don't know what they want to be and they're happy just taking the next four years to have fun and figure it out as they go."

"I don't know, I think having it all mapped out has a lot going for it too. You're destined to do something you're obviously great at, so there's not much chance of you screwing it up and having nothing a few years from now. And being a Watcher comes with tenure, no getting laid off because the work dies out, especially now."

"No," Reece grinned. "But being a Watcher means _I_ could die out, and there's not much point in tenure then."

Reece dying on the job was an uncomfortable possibility, but Dawn didn't want to act needy by telling him to shut up. "Any of us could meet our maker tomorrow, seeing as how we mess with the evil every day, but I don't think dwelling on it will do any good. If Buffy had worried about that, the wrinkly old Master would have got to the surface and I wouldn't be here now. Or Glory would have killed me and… I still wouldn't be here now."

Dawn fell silent, snuggled against Reece, as she thought about all the times she might have been dead or nonexistent if Buffy had been too scared to face death herself. It made her feel a little guilty for not appreciating it more.

"I don't dwell," Reece promised her. "But I do try to pack as much life into every day as I possibly can. My dad gave me the tip my second year at the academy, when we first started practical assignments. He said, I don't care what you get up to, as long as you're enjoying it. Death can come at any time and you don't want your last seconds to be boring as your life flashes before your eyes." He laughed. "Of course, after that he gave me this big long list of stuff I wasn't allowed to do like skiving school, being unkind to dogs, disrespecting my mother, taking drugs, stealing, murder, that kind of thing."

"Your dad sounds nice."

"He was." Reece nodded. "He was a tough bugger most of the time, but he had a real soft spot when it came to me and my sister. I could get around him easier than I can my mother anyway."

Dawn looked up at him compassionately, "Did he die in the explosion?"

Reece nodded. "He'd been off active duty awhile, a vampire bite to the back of the neck left him with limited movement down his left side. He was always at HQ."

"I'm sorry," Dawn murmured. "My mom died a couple of years ago, aneurysm caused by brain surgery."

Reece hugged her even closer, kissing the side of her head. "Did she leave you any good advice?"

"Always wash behind your ears if you don't like potatoes."

Reece gave an involuntary bark of laughter, and instead of being offended, Dawn found herself joining in. When their lips came together again, she was a little surprised at herself for initiating it, but it didn't seem to matter.

As Reece pulled away, he said, "Dawn, you're shivering like a mad woman! Do you want to call it a night, it's getting late anyway."

"No," she said at once, despite the fact that he was right and her teeth were chattering. "I want to keep talking, but somewhere warmer might be nice."

"Well the kitchen's out because I'm not having you turn awkward again," Reece joked. "And I'm a little scared at what we might find in the living room."

"We could go to your room," she offered tentatively. "It's only just there."

He looked behind him to the boy's dormitory; it was only a hundred yards away. Looking back at Dawn, he grinned. "Not sure I trust myself with such a beautiful girl near my bed."

"I won't let you do anything I don't want you to," Dawn promised getting up and holding out her hand this time. "And I may just be a girl, but I've had slayer training."

"Now I trust myself even less," he grinned, letting her lead the way.

* * *

Faith probably would have been happy to dance out the rest of the night with Robin, well happy wasn't really the right adjective, but Robin fouled it up anyway when he said,

"Those two make quite the handsome couple."

She turned her head to watch Kennedy and Willow dance. They did look good together, but still not particularly comfortable despite being tight in each others arms. She could only see Kennedy's face and the younger slayer seemed to be bitching to herself silently about something.

"I didn't know they were together though. Xander never mentioned it earlier." Robin continued.

"Huh?" He knew Ken and Red were a couple. Anyone who'd been in Sunnydale last spring knew they were a couple. It had been kind of impossible to miss.

Looking at Robin again, she realised he was looking past the lesbians altogether and craned her neck around to see who he meant.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Xander holding Buffy close as they danced naughtily together. She had one hand on his chest, rubbing it up and down, and her other was pushed up into his dark hair, holding his face just inches from hers as she smiled and said stuff Faith couldn't make out from the angle. His hands were on her hips holding her to him tightly and he had a leg pushed between hers – the height difference meant Buffy was rubbing against it with every move she made…

Faith stopped dancing, and her voice flat, said, "They're not together."

Buffy flicked her long hair over one shoulder as she laughed at something Xander said. She snaked her other arm up and over his shoulder, drawing their faces even closer as she whispered something back.

Robin sensed the mood shift and loosed his grip on her a little as he remarked casually, "Well they're both single, maybe they're just having some fun."

Faith didn't answer as she watched Buffy and Xander dance around the floor wrapped together like lovers. As they came closer, she felt her body tense all over and as much as she told her self to calm the hell down, it didn't work.

Robin rubbed her back lightly. "Hey, Faith, it's no big deal, is it? Xander's a nice guy. He's not going to do anything to hurt her."

Faith didn't answer, but she forced herself to look away from them and got herself dancing again. When Robin tried to pull her close, she resisted, shrugging away from him to dance alone.

"Faith?" he asked.

"Just quit crowding me, would ya?" she snapped.

Perplexed, he watched her closely as he gave her some space.

* * *

Xander was enjoying this way more than he should.

He knew that, same as he knew this was probably going to end with him getting pounded into mincemeat by Faith's fists, but that didn't stop him from pulling Buffy closer by her hips, loving the feel of her smooshing previously off-limits parts of herself into his thigh.

How could he turn this down? This was all he'd ever wanted all along. For eight long years he longed to have Buffy dancing with him this way. Okay he'd had a little taste of it back in their junior year when Buffy had been trying to make Angel jealous and that had made him feel like crap, worse than crap in fact. Something that crap would complain about getting stuck to its feet… but this was different.

How exactly he wasn't sure, it just was.

Maybe because now all the erotic-y feelings Buffy's hands were inspiring as they rubbed his chest and gripped his hair were safe. He knew this wasn't going further than a dance and he wasn't _in love_ with her anymore, so that gave him lots of free rein to just enjoy the hands and the… off limits parts… that were doing all kinds of things to send his brain crazy.

"Buffy."

"Uh huh?"

"Do you know what would make Faith _really_ jealous?"

"What?" she grinned, her face inches from his.

"Me, you, less clothes, more parts interlocking…" he grinned back, hitching his eyebrows a few times.

She laughed and her other arm went around his neck, pulling his face even closer. "Down, big boy."

"This is so not fair. I finally get you exactly where I want you," he teased. "After many years of trying, might I add, and someone else is going to get the benefit of it."

"You think I should be making this worth your while?" she smiled and both of her hands suddenly swooped down his back to his ass. "If you kiss me now, I promise not to kick this." She gave his ass a firm squeeze.

It was tempting, oh so very tempting.

"I'm not joking Xan." She said, and the look in her eyes told him she wasn't. "One night of harmless pleasure?"

He moved his hand from her hip to brush some hair from her face.

"You're lonely, I'm lonely." She whispered into his ear.

As she pulled back to look at him, he felt a skip in his… okay heart would have been more romantic, but if he was honest he'd have to say that it was somewhere a lot south of there that had skipped, or jumped, or sprung even further to attention.

"Buffy." He said softly, a slight warning in his voice, although which one of them it was for he didn't know.

"Xander." She said in the same tone he had, and suddenly she was dancing a little different and he was between her legs and there was a certain amount of… grinding…oh God… that hadn't been there before.

Beyond rational thought, he kissed her.

* * *

Willow had been watching her best friends dance together though half closed eyes, but when she saw their lips meet in a heavy smooch, her head lifted from Kennedy's shoulder fast.

"Holy Hell!"

"What?" Kennedy jumped at the loud shout in her ear. Turning to see what it was about, her own eyes bugged out. "Jeezus!"

* * *

Faith had been trying not to look at Xander and Buffy dancing, but every now and then her eyes had strayed traitorously that way.

When she saw Buffy pulling Xander into her as hard as she could, while his lips attacked hers with equal intensity something snapped inside and Faith didn't even try to hold the ends together.

Lunging across the dance floor, she felt Robin trying to get a grip on her – one backwards snap of her arm kept him away – and then she was on them.

* * *

Buffy had been caught up in the moment yet again, but strangely, as much as she was enjoying herself, Naomi's odd words of advice had come back to her. She wasn't sure why she should heed them, but as she pulled away from Xander, she caught sight of Faith lunging towards them.

Looking like a hell-chick gone mad, Faith knocked Robin off of his feet without even sparing him a glance and had her hands out ready to strangle.

"Faith, no!" Buffy shouted, as she pushed Xander behind her, out of the way.

She needn't have bothered she realised, Faith didn't even spare him a glance as she barrelled into Buffy, grabbing her by the front of her top and propelling her backwards. Their feet tangled and Buffy felt herself falling. Faith didn't try and save her as Buffy went down, she just followed her.

[End of act 3

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to let me know what you think :)


	16. Act 4

Sorry for the long delay between updates. I know I said I wasn't going to do that again, but things kept getting in the way of me sitting down to write this, and then more things (like the festive season) got in the way of me re-writing it :).

* * *

**Act four**

Buffy's back hit the wooden floor, and immediately afterwards Faith's ass hit her stomach, driving the air from her lungs with a loud whoosh.

"Faith!" she gasped, in some vain hope of getting sense into her.

They couldn't have a fight in the middle of the bar. What would the locals think when they started kicking each other through windows?

"We're through?" Faith shouted in Buffy's face, seeming happy to kneel astride her, grabbing big handfuls of Buffy's top and winding it around her hands, making the material taut and the modest neckline… less modest.

The borrowed short skirt was riding up Faith thighs, like _right _up her thighs. It probably wasn't really the time for Buffy to notice stuff like that, but with the way Faith was straddling her, it wasn't easy to not notice. Untangling one fist from the front of Buffy's tank top, Faith pointed at Xander as she shouted, "We're through so you can make out with him?"

"You made out with him!" Buffy gestured at Robin who was just getting back to his feet. She tried to push Faith off, but it was like trying to move a house. "Don't act like the injured party here, Faith, because that's me!"

"Oh yeah, you're so frickin injured!" Faith shouted back. "You've been carrying on with Xander behind my back, and I'm the one in the wrong?"

"I have not, and anyway, you started it," Buffy shot back, deciding it was only fair if she balled her fists in Faith's halter neck too.

"Gee Buffy, grow up why don't ya?"

"Me grow up?"

Over Faith's shoulder, Buffy could see help was on the way, not that any help was really needed. The two of them weren't doing much more than letting their knuckles get to second base; even the shouting match was too ridiculous to be scary.

Still Xander, perhaps feeling guilty even though he had no reason to, was reaching towards them. "Faith, let her go. If you're going to be pissed at someone, be pissed at me."

"That makes sense," Kennedy said, and Buffy realised they'd formed a ring, shielding them as much as possible from the eyes of the other patrons. "Why have her pound on a quick-healing Slayer when she can pound on a slow-healing normal guy."

Scowling, Faith used Buffy's breast to push herself back to her feet. Buffy bit her lip to hide her quivering smile and was too slow to let go of Faith's top. Only as she felt it give when it shouldn't did she remember it was hers.

"Do I look like I'm pounding on anyone?" Faith demanded, her hand snaking out and catching Xander by the front of his shirt even as she got in Kennedy's face.

"Not yet," Willow moved closer to Kennedy. "Not sure I'm willing to wait until it's too late though, Faith."

"Really?" Faith sneered. "And here was me thinking that was your specialty these days."

"Shut up!"

Faith kept sneering at Willow, apparently having forgotten she was holding onto Xander. Buffy couldn't help thinking everything had been better before anyone came to her rescue. Faith had been sitting on her! Why had they thought she needed anyone to intervene?

"Hey, weren't we in the middle of an argument?" she called up, hoping to entice Faith back down.

Faith didn't even look and Buffy wondered how much longer she could feasibly lay on the ground, waiting with no obvious reason.

"What's going on?" Kennedy's confused eyes went from Willow to Faith and back again.

"You should ask your girl," Faith tilted her head at Willow.

"Faith, I'm warning you." Willow glared at her, but Faith just smirked back.

"Well?" Kennedy asked Willow, seeming more bemused than angry. "What's she talking about?"

Buffy saw Willow's hand start to move by her side. It was subtle, no one else had noticed it yet, but she recognised it immediately. Magickal burns tended to imprint on your memory that way.

"Will, no!" Flipping herself to her feet, Buffy dove in front of Faith just as the stream of energy left the witch's hand.

Willow's eyes went wide and she physically thrust her hand backwards as far as her shoulder, remarkably pulling the magick back with it. "Damn it Buffy, move!"

"You think I'm out of control!" Faith exploded, actually shoving Buffy to one side to get closer to Willow, dragging Xander with her.

"Civilians, civilians around!" He tried to whisper quietly but his urgency wouldn't allow it.

Willow's hand prepared itself again, blatantly this time. Faith didn't hesitate in coming forward but it was Kennedy who stepped in the way this time.

"Willow! What are you doing? What did you do that was so bad?" Kennedy asked fearfully.

"Nothing." Once again, Willow retracted the magick and took hold of her girlfriend's shoulders, her eyes distraught. "Nothing!"

Kennedy shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I don't believe you." She stepped back, away from Willow.

"Kenny," Willow pleaded, her eyes a watery green.

"She kissed Oz," Buffy found herself blurting out, upset by Willow's easy use of magick.

"You did what?" Kennedy stepped back again, her eyes stony, her fists balling at her sides. When Willow didn't deny it, she sneered, "Well I kissed Buffy this morning, and you know what? It was great."

"Kennedy!" Buffy hissed angrily as Willow turned to her in disbelief, she no longer looked near tears as her eyes narrowed, and Buffy could swear they were getting darker.

"You did what?!"

It was Faith saying it this time, and she shoved Buffy hard for good measure. Before she could follow, to shove her again, a jet of something greeny-blue shot between them. The music distorted radically as one of the big speakers melted.

As all eyes turned to it, Giles came swiftly into the middle of them.

"Just what on earth do you think you are all playing at? Willow, what's gotten into you? Buffy, Faith stop behaving like children for once in your joint existence. Get outside now, the lot of you. Kennedy, stop looking so horrified, it's not like you haven't seen magick before! Willow, stop crying this instance and do as I say!"

Giles said all of this in as hushed a whisper as his anger would allow. When no one moved, he got physical and pulled Faith's arm so hard that she finally let go of Xander's shirt.

"My hero," Xander exclaimed, and kissed Giles hard on the mouth.

Buffy's eyes bugged out as she stared, and they nearly fell out altogether when she realised that, for a few seconds at least, Giles was kissing him back!

* * *

The boy's dormitory was really quite cosy. The debris left lying around by the departed cadets made it more homely than it would have been with just Reece's precision tidiness and Craig's scant possessions.

Reece had found two old desk lamps down in the basement a few days before and they offered a much nicer ambience than the overhead fluorescents. Music would have been good though, Dawn decided, as the sound of her pants zipper going down cut through the romantic mood.

She hesitated, pulling her lips shyly from Reece's as she grinned nervously.

"Do you want to stop?" Reece asked, his breathing laboured.

"No," Dawn said honestly.

She'd thought about stopping after Reece had gently shucked her shirt from her shoulders before skilfully removing her bra without looking. She'd never been so naked with another human being outside of gym showers before and that was when the big wave of embarrassment had hit her.

Reece had asked her then if she was okay, noticing that the blush in her cheeks wasn't purely from arousal. Her timid 'no' then hadn't been entirely truthful, but as soon as his hands had touched her newly bared skin and he'd kissed her again, she had been glad she lied.

That had been half an hour ago, and for maybe half the time since, she'd been on edge waiting for him to push her further. In the end it had been her hands straying tentatively below his waist that encouraged him.

Until the sound of her zipper brought reality home.

"I…I don't want to stop," she looked up into his eyes, her hands on his bare chest. "But what…? I mean, what do you…?"

He cut her off with another tender open kiss and when he pulled back he looked seriously into her eyes.

"I'm not looking for anything," he promised her, smiling. "But I am enjoying myself. I'd have to be a fool, or gay, if I wasn't. But, if you're tired, or you just want to stop, that's fine by me. And if you don't…" He kissed her again, his teasing tongue tempting her. After a few seconds, he murmured, "Whatever you want, Dawn."

"Okay."

Reassured, Dawn set her lips back to his, wanting to devour him some more as she splayed herself under him. As she felt his hand slide into her pants, she sucked in a quivering breath and thrust her tongue deep into his sweet mouth.

* * *

"Xander?" Giles tried to speak past his young friend's lips, but Xander's mouth was insistent. "Xander," he tried again, this time lifting both hands to gently pry him off.

Xander pulled back, a lop-sided grin on his face. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Giles asked, incredulously.

"You kissed Giles!" Buffy smacked Xander hard on the arm.

"Ow! What? No I didn't." Xander chuckled nervously, looking around to see everyone – and not just their friends – staring at him in amazement. "Did I?"

"You don't remember?" Giles asked, concerned.

"No, no I remember," Xander turned his troubled gaze to Giles. "I'm just blanking on the why."

"Because you wanna play hide the pickle with him maybe?" Faith asked gently, as if she was genuinely trying to help jog his memory.

"No!" Xander shook his head, mildly disgusted. "I mean the G-man's a stud, and if I was looking for a sugar daddy, but… No! I was just really pleased that he got you to let go of my new shirt before you ripped it, and then I thought 'I'd love to see the look on Giles face if I pretended to go all damsel in distress on him'."

"You mean this look?" Giles asked mildly, pointing to his bemused expression.

"Yeah," Xander's chuckle lost its strength quickly. "But it was just an idle thought; I was never actually going to do it!"

"And yet you did," said Giles quietly.

"Okay, I'm way past the point of confused here," Buffy folded her arms, staring at Xander. "Why would you kiss Giles if you didn't want to kiss Giles?"

"I don't know, the same reason I kissed Andrew this morning, maybe?" Xander answered without thinking. Cringing, he added, "Honestly, I'm really not gay."

"Well that's obvious," Faith snorted.

Xander shot her a look, "Remember who has yet to decide on your hourly rate, missy!"

"Did you just call me missy?"

"Maybe you're experimenting," Kennedy suggested. "But subconsciously, because you're not ready to consciously admit it."

"But why with Giles?" Buffy asked in such a disbelieving tone that Giles felt compelled to remind her of their little flirtation earlier.

And then it hit him and it took him but a second to piece it all together: Buffy and Xander both showing an unexpected interest in him, his immediate arousal in both instances when normally he would have been appalled. Xander and Buffy kissing on the dance floor. Willow kissing Oz hadn't seemed that outlandish, but surely Kennedy and Buffy could be classed as such. And he was sure – although he's done his best to dismiss it as a trick of the light – he'd seen Buffy and Naomi acting very oddly together from his bedroom.

"Oh dear Lord," he muttered. "We're all under a bloody lust spell!"

As everyone looked at him with varying degrees of worry, he ordered once more. "Everybody outside."

This time they complied, and no one spoke again until they were standing on the cool, deserted street.

"We're under a love spell!" Xander exploded at once, starting to pace. "When will people stop messing with love spells around me?"

"Not a love spell," Giles quickly corrected him. "A lust spell."

"That's better?" Buffy demanded, as angry as Xander.

"Yes, actually," Giles nodded. "They're not nearly as dangerous, although somewhat more disruptive; as tonight has shown."

"More disruptive than the whole female population of Sunnydale chasing me down?"

Giles hesitated, "Disruptive in a different way."

"So it's a spell?" Kennedy asked. Shooting Buffy a look of relief, she turned to Willow, demanding, "Was it you?"

"What?" Willow had been silent ever since Giles had broken up the argument on the dance floor, her cheeks were still stained with her tears, and she had the hollow, washed out appearance that came from using magick aggressively. "No. I don't know anything about it."

"So you didn't cast a spell to make Oz kiss you this morning?" Kennedy continued doggedly.

"No! I would never do that!" Willow looked ready to start crying again.

Kennedy looked away, not saying anything else.

Robin had also been staying quiet, ever since Faith had knocked him flat on his back. Aside from seeing his date obviously smitten with somebody else, his pride was most likely severely injured.

"So who did cast it?" he asked now, looking grave.

"Beryan," Buffy said confidently. "She's pretty darn pissed at us right now."

"Who's Beryan?" Faith asked. "And please tell me she's not a mere mortal so I can kick her ass."

"She is a mortal," Willow said, her voice still sniffily.

"Just not so much with the mere," Xander added.

"I don't think it is her, though," Willow continued. "I mean, she was pretty mad, but only at the Watchers, and you Buffy, after you pissed her off, but I don't think she'd cast a spell over all of us."

"Besides, this isn't her style," Xander agreed. "If she wanted to get us back, she'd just make the carpets suck us down into oblivion or have our pillows suffocate us in our sleep."

"She sounds like one twisted bitch," Faith mused.

"Not really, she's just into practical magic," said Willow. "It has to be someone else. I've read that certain lust spells are sometimes used as mild vengeance spells; they're meant more for causing annoyance than any real harm."

"Okay, I think its safe to say we're all annoyed right now, so maybe you're right," Faith began. "But how is that? I don't normally find lust all that annoying, generally I'm all for lust, ya know?"

"Yeah, we know," Buffy muttered, and then did her best to look innocent when Faith looked her way.

"It's the confusion," Giles explained. "There are several types of lust spell. Some are meant to be used on an individual for obvious reasons, others are meant to be used on small groups of people, for orgies and such like."

He felt like he should be embarrassed, and knew it was the lust spell that was making this topic so easy to discuss.

"Orgies?" Buffy asked nervously. "Please tell me no one in _this_ small group of people is thinking that?"

"Always the prude," Faith muttered.

Buffy shot her a hurt look and Giles hurriedly continued,

"Others are used for a more widespread purpose. With the correct measure of ingredients and a more precise invocation, it's possible to induce a strong feeling of affection and unreserved passion among a great many people. It's a wonderful feeling, rather like being on ecstasy, so I'm told."

"You've tried X?" Faith didn't believe it.

"Of course not."

There was silence for a beat and then Xander crowed, "You did the orgy one, didn't you!"

"Oh God, please no!" Buffy put her hands over her ears.

Giles sent Xander a hard stare, but didn't deny it. "Lust spells can be very powerful, and they're the exception to the rule in that the more generalised they are, the more power they contain. Apparently – although I've never found anyone who can actually verify it – a chaos mage was responsible for the free-love era of the sixties. He cast a spell that got away from him and a whole generation received the benefits… and the repercussions, of course."

"Really?" Kennedy smiled slowly. "That's actually kinda cool." When people looked her way, surprised, she added, "Being able to make a whole generation happy and loved up – who here thinks that isn't cool?"

"Wasn't the Vietnam war in the sixties too?" Faith asked.

"And that brings us to the repercussions," Giles began.

The door to the bar flew open, making them all jump, and Alex came out quickly, slamming the door behind him again.

"What on God's green earth happened in there?"

Giles stepped up to the man. "There was something of an altercation, which is why we are all outside cooling off."

"_Something_ of an altercation? My cuz said you were all fighting, and kissing—" Alex looked warily between Giles and Xander, "—and that you melted his speaker."

"We weren't all fighting," Giles drew his shoulders back indignantly.

"And we weren't all kissing," Kennedy shot Willow a look.

"But how did you melt his speaker?" Alex went straight to the heart of his perplexity.

There was silence as everyone looked at each other, waiting for someone else to come up with a viable theory.

"There were a lot of wires and plugs and stuff," Buffy said at last. "Maybe your cousin accidentally overloaded something."

"He's an electrician, Buffy," Alex reminded her, exasperated.

Willow burst into noisy tears, and when everyone looked at her, she wailed, "I'm sorry." and ran off towards the diner.

"Couldn't she just have unmelted it, instead of being such a drama queen?" Faith muttered under her breath.

"Faith," Giles warned softly, louder he addressed Kennedy, "Perhaps you should go after her?"

"Perhaps she can bite me," Kennedy shot back sullenly.

"You kissed someone you shouldn't have today, too," Buffy reminded her.

"Yeah, it was you, B!" Faith took a step closer to her. "You forgot to mention that when you were making a big song and dance about me screwing with my parole officer, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well, maybe if you hadn't acted like such a little pussy last week, Buffy wouldn't be coming to me for a…" Kennedy staggered back under Faith's blow, her hand going to her punched nose.

"Don't talk about her like that!" Faith warned, pointing her finger.

"For attention!" Kennedy shouted, shoving Faith hard in the chest. "I was going to say: for attention!"

"I didn't come to you for attention," Buffy snapped at Kennedy, deliberately getting in her face to prevent Faith attempting a second attack. "I didn't come to you for anything."

"Maybe not, but if I hadn't stopped you, you'd have been trying to in no time." Smirking, Kennedy added, "To come, that…"

She staggered back again, and this time there was blood dribbling from her nose.

Buffy turned on Faith, pushing her backwards. "What is wrong with you? You can't just go punching people over my shoulder."

"I was defending your honour," Faith pushed her back. "Which is more than you've ever done for me."

"That's 'cause I'm not a Neanderthal…"

Buffy lurched to the side as Kennedy knocked her out of the way. With her fist cocked, and a gleeful, bloody smile, she released her tension on Faith's nose – hitting a lot harder than Faith had.

Giles motioned for the men to stand back a little as the three women launched into a three-way scuffle, all fighting each other at once.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Robin asked.

"Well unless you have a tranquilliser gun handy, I'm not sure how," Giles admitted, wincing as Kennedy caught an elbow in the stomach from both elder slayers simultaneously.

"It's like watching a cartoon," Xander said in awe, as Buffy tried to make an escape from the brawl only to have Kennedy drag her back in by her hair.

All three men jumped as Alex suddenly bellowed over the noise of the cat fight.

"ENOUGH!"

When the metaphorical dust settled, Giles almost chuckled at the Slayer hierarchy.

Buffy had Faith in a headlock, who in turn had Kennedy in a headlock, and all three were now looking up in guilty surprise.

Alex was waving his deputy badge about.

"As I was saying," Giles sighed heavily. "Repercussions."

* * *

"Welcome home, Faith." Buffy was giggling so hard she couldn't seem to stop as the metal gate clanged shut on them. "Don't ever say I don't go out of my way to make you feel comfortable."

"I can't believe I'm in the Drunk Tank," Kennedy rolled her eyes. "I only had a mouthful of beer all night!" she shouted through the bars, before cracking up with Buffy.

"Guys, this isn't funny," Faith growled at them. "I'm on freaking parole!"

Buffy and Kennedy both did their best to sober up and take the situation seriously, but one glance at Faith's freaked out expression sent them both back into giggles.

* * *

"Is this really necessary?" Giles asked.

"Yes," Alex said shortly, as he filled out the paperwork.

"On what charge are you holding them?" Robin asked authoritatively.

"You were there when I read them their rights," Alex answered tersely, "Street brawling, disturbing the peace, causing a public nuisance…"

"We were the only people out there, Alex," Xander reminded his friend.

"They were shouting and swearing in the street," Alex said, not looking at him. "Right in front of people's houses; I'm sure someone was disturbed. And they were being a nuisance to me, and I'm a public official."

"Please, Al," Xander coaxed. "Just slap them on the wrist and let us go?"

"There's also the matter of damage to private property," Alex continued as if Xander hadn't spoken. "I'm not gonna make any guesses as to how you did that. In fact I don't even want to know; but speakers don't come cheap."

"Are you asking us for a bribe?" Robin chuckled.

Alex gave him a stern look. "I can legally keep those three here all night, but I don't want that hassle, so as soon as Sam knocks off for the night, they can go home. The speaker belongs to my cousin and I don't know what he wants to do about its damage yet, but as a gesture of goodwill, it might be nice if one of you went and spoke to him. Either way, I'm gonna have to ask all three of you to leave now, 'cause I'm going back to the party."

They filed out of the door, leaving Alex to have a word with Sam.

"So what's the first priority?" Robin asked, as they began walking back towards Barnies. "The speaker or the spell?"

"Willow," Xander said firmly, "is my first priority. "We don't know where she ran off to, or if she's okay, and it's been half an hour."

"Has she… has she been back on the magick for a while?" Robin asked, sounding both fearful and compassionate.

"No! This isn't… that," Xander shook his head. "Tonight had to be something to do with the lust spell; it loosened her inhibitions about it or something."

"You may be right," Giles agreed. "But I think her encounter with Orisis last night might have something to do with it as well."

"You mean when she brought you and kids back?" Xander asked.

"Yes. The power she gathered for that must have been enormous and it takes awhile to…to let it ungather. Tonight, when the spell enhanced her annoyance, the magick would have been just at her fingertips. I honestly believe it wasn't something she resorted to tonight, so much as a reflex action – the first time at least, and after that, well; the nature of addiction takes over.

"Okay," Robin nodded. "That all sounded truly scary, and over my head. So I'll let you two deal with that, while I go see the boy about the speaker."

Giles called after him, "Tell him we'll buy him a better one if he can find it within himself to forgive us."

"See, now I knew someone would be bribing someone before the end of the night," Robin grinned.

"Yes, well its better than reading 'Watchers Council destroys father-to-be's livelihood' in the local bloody rag tomorrow," Giles grumbled.

"Also, better _not_ to piss off the guy who offered to come fix our electricity problem in the morning," Xander added. "I'm going to find Willow."

"Xander, don't stray too far," Giles cautioned. "Heaven knows what might be lurking around here, especially on a full moon, and when push comes to shove, Willow can defend herself a darn sight better than you can."

"Okay. What are you going to do?"

"Sit in the truck and try to figure out this spell nonsense," Giles sighed.

* * *

The living room was alive with the sounds of heavy breathing and subtle grunts; every now and again the couch made a squeaking noise.

Craig was in seventh heaven; he was a pig in clover; he was a cat with a bunch of canaries willingly walking into his open mouth.

"You're a great kisser," he murmured against Andrew's lips.

"I am?" Andrew mumbled back. "Cool."

Craig smiled, "Mmm, glad you finally came to your senses. I thought I was gonna have to look and not touch my whole holiday."

"I guess I just wasn't sure until today." Andrew admitted.

Together they slid sideways on the couch until they were laying down facing each other. Craig's hands raked through Andrew's short hair, pulling his mouth up to meet his again, as Andrew's hands disappeared bravely beneath Craig's white t-shirt. Their legs tangled together and the couch creaked more frequently, giving the impression that something less innocent was taking place.

Craig suddenly had a sinking feeling.

"Wait a mo, Andy," he said, half sitting up.

"What's wrong?" Andrew looked worried.

"Are you saying you weren't sure you fancied me until today?"

"Um, no, not that. I just didn't know… I'm not good at taking plunges, or… or leaps. I'm much happier when I have a manual, or someone to show me how it's supposed to work. And… you don't come with a manual and what if I get it all wrong and I can't make you… work right?"

Craig laughed in relief, "I do have a manual," he told a pouting Andrew. "It's programmed into me and you just have to use the proper voice commands to access it."

Andrew relaxed against him again, smiling. "Okay, I get it. But it feels awkward, having to ask all these questions I should already know the answer too."

"Who says you should know everything," Craig kissed him. "If I wanted a jaded know-it-all boyfriend, I'd be with a bloomin' cadet."

"Boyfriend?" Andrew asked in a voice that held the same twang as the couch springs.

Chuckling, Craig rolled on top of him, giving him the answer non-verbally.

Five minutes of breathless making out later, Andrew's hand boldly dropped to the ass of Craig's jeans, dragging a moan from the English boy.

"Is this okay?" Andrew asked timidly.

"Yeah, but…" Craig gave a pained sigh as he mentally cursed himself. "Maybe we should take it a little slower." Reluctantly he took Andrew's hand in his own, and pulled it up to his chest. "Just for now?"

"But I want to," Andrew promised him earnestly.

"I don't doubt it, but just trust me on this, yeah?" Craig answered mysteriously

* * *

Back in Sunnydale, Dawn had heard plenty of her friends speak in hushed, giggly tones about their de-virginisation. The stories told by these fifteen and sixteen year olds varied from the outrageous to the ridiculous, giving Dawn the impression that most of her classmates were at least as clueless as she was about the whole thing, and a few of them were out and out liars.

Still, she'd had to get her information somewhere. Buffy had always been too busy, Mom wasn't around anymore and the sex-ed class the school provided was a joke. So she'd listened to the girls around her talk and show off and came to the conclusion that most first times probably fell somewhere between: 'It hurt like hell; I'm never doing that again' and 'Insert-name-here was so romantic and great and read me love poems while we did it blah-blah-blah'.

Reece wasn't reading love poems, but he was making her name sound like poetry as he breathed it over her skin.

And it didn't hurt, not really. It was uncomfortable, but only a little, and even that went away as Reece murmured beautiful nothings to her, stroking her cheek with his thumb, being as tender as he knew how to be.

* * *

Xander walked along, his fingers tapping his thigh in time with the faint music he could hear coming from Barnies. The main street was an oasis of bright street lighting and the alleyways between the houses were black holes into the surrounding darkness. Xander stared hard into them as he passed, but couldn't make out anything at all. It was a possibility he'd have to check out these forbidding portals to the back streets – where he'd been attacked by some dinky yet dangerous local tearaways – but he'd check the well lit places first.

The diner was still open, white fluorescent light poured from the plate glass windows, reflecting on the few cars in the parking lot. Xander bee-lined for it, sure this was where Willow would have run to, but he could see no customers inside, only the staff in various degrees of slacking off as they talked with one another.

Annoyed that his watertight theory hadn't paid off, Xander turned to face the street again, frowning as he contemplated venturing into the alleys. That was when he saw their car, parked off to the side near the closed general store, and the figure hunched over in the driver's seat.

He stood there, wondering how best to approach the situation, and then turned and walked into the diner.

Five minutes later he opened the passenger door of the car, startling Willow. She looked over at him, tensed as she hurriedly wiped tear tracks from her face with her sleeves. He slid awkwardly into the car, being careful so as not to spill either of the large hot drink takeout cups.

"So did Kennedy send you to break up with me?" she asked, her voice hoarse from her crying. "She can't even bear to face me for that long, huh?"

"No, she didn't send me." He handed her one of the drinks. "It's cocoa, not coffee. Figured caffeine wasn't a good idea right now."

"Scared I might destroy the world on a caffeine buzz?" she asked sullenly as she took the cup."

"Nope. Caffeine-buzzy Willow can't sit still long enough to destroy the world." He gave her a tentative grin as he pulled his door shut with a solid thud. "I just remember it doesn't go so well with the old magickal come downy-ness."

"Thanks," she finally said.

The car became a box of silence as Willow stared at the little red blinking LED of the immobiliser.

Xander looked out of the windscreen and the passenger window. It was so quiet out here at night. He'd gotten more or less use to the stillness of the camp's grounds after dark – well except for when Pixies and Werewolves were out to play anyway – but here in the centre of the town it still seemed weird. The majority of the Sunnydale populace had known better than to wander the streets at night – even if they hadn't really known why – but it had never been this empty before midnight.

He took a sip of his drink, burning his tongue, as he tried to decide what to do or say next. Was this one of those moments when just sitting here in silence was enough? Just his presence enough to make his best friend feel better? It didn't seem so. Willow was still sitting hunched up, she wasn't crying but her mouth was turned down so severely that she looked like she was wearing sad clown make up. Acting like the cup she was holding was just a hand-warmer, not something she actually supposed to drink from and enjoy.

"So what makes you so sure she wants to break up?" His voice sounded too loud after the long quiet minutes.

Willow must have felt the same as she jerked her head towards him, her frown deepening.

"Why wouldn't she? I kissed Oz. I… I used magick for something I shouldn't have." Her voice was flat and distant. "Tara only needed half of that to leave."

"Kennedy isn't Tara," Xander said softly.

"I know that! Why do people think I need reminding of that?"

"Okay, easy Will, I just meant Kennedy doesn't have the same history with that side of you as Tara did. Tara didn't just up and leave did she? There was a long build up to it from what I remember. And I know you're not going to make those same mistakes again, so Kennedy won't have any reason to do what Tara did."

He was surprised his voice came out so confident; not because he didn't believe what he'd said, but because of the way Willow's eyes were burning into him as he spoke.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Aren't you sure?"

Willow licked her lips, looking down at her cup. "I wasn't going to hurt anyone tonight. I was in control, not that other bad part of me, the part that doesn't even do control. Me. I knew what I was doing. I just wanted to give Faith a little zap, just to make her shut her up, just so she'd know not to mess with me like that again."

"And Buffy? You just wanted to give her a little zap too?"

"Yes," Willow said resolutely.

"Willow, you melted a speaker!" The words rushed out on a disbelieving chuckle.

"Yeah, well, speakers are made differently to people. There's no rule that says Buffy or Faith would have melted just because the speaker did!"

Xander smiled at her, "Yeah, well, you're the magick expert."

Slowly, Willow gave him a wavery smile in return and took a sip of her drink.

"Either way I was wrong to use magick like that, and I'm glad I only zapped a speaker."

"Bet you won't be when Giles deducts it from your salary."

"Not high on my list of worries right now," she admitted, frowning again. "So where is Kennedy? I was expecting her to come after me."

Xander laughed, "Well she might have, but she got a little detained."

"Huh?"

"She's in the slammer."

"Huh?" Willow said again with more emphasis.

"After you ran off, she sort of got into a fight."

"With Faith?"

"Yeah, and Buffy."

"They beat her up?" Willow's voice went high with agitation.

"No, not exactly, they all sort of started beating each other up," Xander explained, grinning. "They got into an argument about all the kissing and… to be honest – even though I was standing right there – I don't know quite what happened, but Faith punched Kennedy and Buffy had a go at Faith and then Kennedy had a go at Buffy and then Kennedy punched Faith." He sat back and slurped up some of his cocoa, feeling exhausted from recounting the hectic event. "And then it all went blurry."

Willow sat in stunned silence for awhile. "How did she end up arrested?"

"Alex was there, remember, and I guess it pissed him off." Xander thought about it. "Or he was already pissed off with his night being disrupted by all of us. Or he was pissed off because he realised Buffy was using him to make Faith jealous. I don't know, but officially he booked them for affray, and causing a public nuisance; which I don't know about you, but I thought was pretty funny."

"Them?" Willow asked.

"Oh yeah, Buffy and Faith are behind bars with her."

At that, Willow couldn't help but chuckle, but she squashed it quickly with a look of genuine concern.

"Faith!"

"It's okay; I don't think Al is going to throw the book at them or anything. Like I said, he was just pissed off. He knows Faith's on parole, and I can't see him deliberately trying to screw her over."

"I hope not."

"You haven't expressed any concern for your best friend's incarcerated condition," Xander noticed idly.

"Buffy can handle it," Willow finished her drink and set the cardboard cup down on the dash. "Besides, she all locked up with Kennedy; I'm sure they're both very cosy."

"With Faith in there too?" Xander raised an eyebrow and Willow looked away irritably. "We're under a lust spell, Will. That's all the kiss was about."

"Whatever," Willow murmured.

"So you're mad that Kennedy kissed Buffy while under the influence; are you going to break up with her?"

"Of course not. It's just, if it really was just because of the spell, why didn't she tell me?"

"Why didn't you tell her about Oz?"

"Because I didn't know it was because of a spell, and I was worried she'd think it was more than just a kiss, that I wanted to get back with him, and it just seemed more sensible not to open up that avenue of thinking for her. But it doesn't go both ways," she said before Xander could point out the obvious. "If she'd told me she kissed Buffy on a spur of the moment wild impulse and she didn't know why and she never meant to, then I…" she trailed off, staring out of the windshield. "I'd have at least given her the benefit of the doubt."

Xander wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Everything he thought of saying sounded condemning, or at the least, condescending, and that wouldn't help. He didn't understand why Willow was so convinced Kennedy wanted to dump her for her indiscretion, especially considering Kennedy's own.

Obviously Willow and Oz had history, but – despite what Oz might be thinking, and Xander was damn sure not going to mention that right now – it was ancient history. It was like, if Cordelia had lowered herself enough to kiss him last year because of a spell, it wouldn't have changed the fact that he was in love with Anya and only really wanted to be with her.

A question suddenly burned in his mind, one that hadn't even occurred to him before now, mostly because he thought he already knew the negative response without asking, making it moot and uninteresting.

"Willow, are you in love with Kennedy?"

"I… I, what? Did ya… did ya go to crazy land to get that idea?"

"It's not a crazy idea," he replied firmly. "Not even close. Are you?"

"I… I don't know," Willow looked at him with wide anxious eyes.

"Okay that either means you're not, or you're lying. Which is it?"

Willow looked away from him, breathing slightly heavily, like she'd just been running.

"I'm not sure; I never thought I could be, I just know… I don't want to lose her."

_Tbc..._


	17. Act 4:2

Boudenver's sheriff's office consisted of: one sheriff, three deputies, one front room complete with reception desk, one office slash tea room and one room used for questioning prisoners – and built long before two-way mirrors were even invented – a rest room, and, of course, the jail cell.

Buffy was now an expert thanks to Deputy Sam – apparently permanently stuck with desk duty these days due to a crossbow accident the month before – being as bored as hell; and because boredom likes company as much as any other emotion does – he'd spent an hour telling them all about the building from its construction, many years before he was born, to the present day.

It was worrying that a twenty-one year old as cute as Sam could be so boring, or maybe it was all part of their punishment. Thankfully he'd eventually gone to phone his girlfriend and left the three slayers alone.

The cell was also boring, with only two features to make it homely: a toilet plumbed into the corner – no cubicle or even a curtain for privacy – and a low wooden cot covered in cigarette burns that ran the length of the back wall.

Currently Buffy was sitting in the middle of the cot; her legs crossed comfortably, her elbows on her knees, as she looked about, trying to find anything interesting to start a conversation about. Anything would do to break the suffocating silence of Kennedy's sulking and Faith's brooding… or maybe it was Kennedy that was brooding and Faith was sulking, Buffy wasn't sure, but she'd had enough.

"You know, this is the nicest jail I've ever been in," she said eventually. "Clean, peaceful, totally vomit-less and without the usual urine-y smell… nice."

"I have an aunt Ureenie," Kennedy said, her voice flat with disinterest, her blank gaze still staring through the bars at nothing.

"Been in a lot of jails, have you?" Faith asked with sarcasm.

"A couple," Buffy shrugged, not rising to the tone. "When you burn down your school gym, they don't just give you detention."

Faith made a huffing sound in amusement. "S'pose not."

Buffy tilted her head down and to the left so she could look at Faith. "So was your cell anything like this?"

Faith lifted her eyes to the ceiling, sighing, as if she wasn't going to reply. She rubbed the back of her neck a few times and then, looking around herself, she gave in.

"Not really. Smaller for one thing. Less bars, more wall. Two bunks, a wash basin, the toilet had like this little partition wall bit, we had a locker each." Faith paused, trying to remember all the details of home. "There was a window – barred, of course. Janey had all her pictures of her family and friends stuck to the wall, I had one of…"

"One of what?" Buffy asked, tucking some dark blonde hair behind her ear.

Faith laughed, shaking her head. "One of Cordelia's photos."

"You had a photo of Cordelia?" Buffy's back straightened in surprise; it was so unexpected, curiosity outweighed any jealousy.

"No, I had a photo _of_ Cordelia's," Faith corrected. "Of you guys back in high school. I asked…. When I first went back, I asked Angel if he could get me… Apparently that was the only one he could find."

"You asked for a photo of…us," Buffy asked shyly, her lips curling into a smile.

"Yeah, Willow looks wicked hot in it," Faith wiggled her eyebrows.

Kennedy's head shot around and she glared at Faith.

"Wind your neck in, K-dawg, I was kidding." Faith placated her, before slyly adding, "Everyone knows Xander was the hottie back then."

Buffy shook her head, giving Faith a withering glance as she jumped up from the cot and paced to the bars. So much for thinking they were getting somewhere. Faith just couldn't be honest for one second…

"'Course, both of them pale into the shrubbery with B being in the photo," Faith said, as if quietly continuing a conversation with Kennedy. "Not their fault, just hard to compete against that kind of beauty, you know?"

Buffy pressed her forehead against the cool bars, hiding her smile.

"It scares me," Faith kept the same quiet, even tone. "All that beauty. I can't handle it. All I know how to do is fuck it up, turn it into some ugly fuckin' thing no one wants, 'cause then I feel like I'm on the same wavelength, ya know, feels like its something I might deserve, once its broken."

"So, when you ran," Buffy started softly, still staring through the bars. "Were you trying to break me… or us? And don't feel you have to hold back, Faith, either answer will hurt the same."

"I wasn't consciously tryin' to do either," Faith sighed. "But that's my point; I can do this shit without even tryin'. Think about what I could do if I actually invested myself."

"Well maybe," Buffy turned, leaning back against the bars, so she could stare hard into Faith's eyes. "You could have _invested _yourself into making us work, instead of being too scared to even give it a shot. Do you know how I felt when Giles showed up last week without you?"

Faith shook her head, "Relieved, if you had any sense."

"Wrong answer. I felt ten times worse than I did when you told me to piss off in California; a thousand times worse than when I woke up that morning and found you not there. Because I at least understood your reasons then. I hated that you left me in LA, but once I knew, I was so proud of the decision you made even though I didn't like it. And I get why you didn't want me staying in Stockton, it hurt so much, but there _was _logic to it. But…but running from Giles, disappearing for a week, risking your parole… why, Faith? Why put your future at jeopardy like that? Why screw Giles like that? And Angel, and Gunn?" Buffy shook her head in despair. "Why hurt me like that?"

"I had my reasons, B, okay?"

"So fucking far from okay, F!" Buffy shouted as she pushed herself off the bars and stormed closer. "If you didn't want to be with me, you should have come back and told me, like an adult…"

"That wasn't it." Faith shouted. "Yeah, you were top of the list of reasons, but not because I didn't want to be with you! I just don't know how. And I was scared of screwing it up."

Buffy started laughing, but there was no humour in it, "So you thought you'd give yourself a head start? Being scared is not a reason, it's an excuse; an excuse for being a complete idiot, for being the way you've always been – thoughtless and selfish."

Faith jumped to her feet, angry now, "Hang on a damn minute, B, you don't know what I went through in prison, you don't know what was going through my head before I took off, and you don't know a thing about what I've been thinking or feeling or doing for the past week. In fact you don't know a damn thing about me…"

"I think I know you pretty well."

"No, you know the bits you've seen, the bits – good and bad – you experienced with me, but that's it! You think my reasons are stupid? That's because you don't like 'em, because you can only see how they relate to you. You're not even taking a second to think how they relate to me! Not even wondering why I might have these reasons in the first place."

"Faith, I know you're damaged g…!" The blow knocked Buffy's head back and she staggered, landing on her ass on the stone floor.

Kennedy was on her feet in a second. She'd been doing her best to stay out of the argument, not moving or adding any of the wise-ass comments she was coming up with, as she let her elders have the row she knew they desperately needed to have. But she was up now, ready to wade in and do her best to break up anything physical.

It didn't look like she was going to have to as she watched Faith recoil with guilt, holding the hand she'd punched with as if it hurt, or as if she was making sure it didn't lash out again. Buffy stayed on the floor, one hand to the bruising already coming out on her cheek, but she didn't look mad, she looked as guilty as Faith did.

"I'm sorry," Faith was the first to apologise, albeit barely audibly.

"No, I am," Buffy's voice was soft too. "I shouldn't have said that."

"Well, it's the truth," Faith sighed, sinking back down on the cot.

"No, Faith, its not," Buffy shook her head, getting slowly to her feet. "I was just trying to hurt you."

"It worked."

"Yay me," Buffy said dejectedly, making Faith chuckle softly.

Buffy sat down next to her. "And you were right, my own perceptions are kinda colouring your exc… reasons, and it's not fair of me to give you a hard time until I've at least given you a chance to explain them, properly."

Kennedy sat back down on the far end of the cot, she wasn't even sure the other two had ever noticed her standing up.

"So you're still gonna give me a hard time after I've explained?" Faith asked with a small smirk.

"That depends on whether I still think they're stupid," Buffy smirked back, giving Faith at least the hope that she was joking. "How properly you explain them will probably go a long way in deciding how hard the time I give you is."

"If you can spare the time, I'll fill you in on every thought and action that lead up to my decision to run – which, just for the record, I know was a really stupid decision to make – I'll give ya the whole nine yards: psyche reports; case studies." When both Buffy and Kennedy looked at her quizzically, Faith added with a grin, "Sorry, been institutionalised for way too long."

"I can spare the time," Buffy smiled. "In fact, I'll have to check my diary, but I think I can offer you the foreseeable future, at least, to state your case."

As Faith's laughter died away, she spoke seriously again. "This sound's like it should be the lead up to a big happy ending, but its not even close, is it?"

"I don't think so, no," Buffy agreed, sadly.

She would like to lie, to insist this was where happiness began, but that wasn't the feeling her gut was giving her, and Faith saying it aloud only cemented it.

"I was serious before, Buffy, when you visited me. I didn't know what I was going to do when I got out and I still don't. I've got a hell of a lot of shit to work out, some of it by next week, and I don't know if I can do it all how I need to, and make things up to you too."

Buffy looked down at her lap

"Hey!" Faith snapped out, making Buffy look up again. "I'm not saying I don't want to be with you. The only thing I'm clear on right now is that I do want to be with you, so don't start thinking the wrong thing and making this harder for us."

"So what does it mean, Faith?" Buffy asked, suddenly impatient. "You want to be with me, but only if I put up and shut up and stay out of your business?"

"Jeez, B_, no_!" Faith stood up from the cot and walked to the bars, she didn't look out for more than a second before she turned to lean against them, folding her arms. "I want to be with you, period; and you know damn well I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it."

"Do I?" Buffy asked quietly.

Faith's eyes went from open and honest to narrow and angry really quickly, Buffy held her stare. "Fine, don't believe me. So what is it **you** want? Why are we having this conversation if you've already written me off?"

"I'm not writing you off. I just… You can't expect my hills to be alive with music after everything you've done…" Faith started to interrupt, but Buffy kept talking. "Leaving me in LA, clueless as to where you were for six weeks. The way you treated me when I finally found out where you were and took time out of my life to rush straight to California to see you. And you said yourself; I don't know what you've been up to for the past week."

"I haven't been up to anything!" Faith's voice rose. "I didn't break a single law all my way here. Well, except for violating my parole conditions," she admitted more reasonably.

"But you were supposed to be up me!" Buffy shot back, before backtracking hurriedly. "I mean, up to me, up with me… You should have been _with_ me," she clarified firmly.

Faith had started to chuckle at Buffy's mistake, but it melted into a soft smile that highlighted the cuteness of her dimples and the gorgeousness of her face. "I know."

Faith's smile, the look in her eyes, the simplicity of her answer, they all went a long way in salving Buffy's anger. She rolled her eyes, trying to suppress her grin as she realised just how dangerous Faith's smile could be.

Dangerous in the sense that it could probably get Buffy to do exactly what it wanted her to, or more precisely, exactly what Faith wanted her to. And judging by the way Faith was now starting to grin, she'd already cottoned on to the effect she could have.

No, that wasn't the way this was going to happen. Faith was not forgiven just because her smile, and her eyes, and her voice, and her body and her… herness, made Buffy forget why she had every reason to be angry. Faith had gotten off extremely lightly for ignoring her parole conditions for a week – _thank God – _leaving it up to Buffy to make the consequences of her actions severe enough that she wouldn't consider 'taking off' to be the easy way out in the future.

"I can't get over this just like that, Faith. It's been five months of hell for me, and maybe that isn't what you intended, but that's what it has been… and I can't just pretend like it hasn't."

Faith didn't speak; her smile looked less sure now.

Buffy continued, "Having you here, now, it's like, I don't know, getting the pony, winning the lottery, all that… and I want us to have that happy ending, Faith, I really do, but… I just can't let go of all the bad endings over night."

Faith left the bars and walked over to Buffy, but instead of sitting on the cot next to her, she dropped to one knee.

"Don't worry, I'm not proposing," Faith smirked as Buffy leaned back, confused. She reached gingerly over to take one of Buffy's hands.

"I'm not going to explode," Buffy promised, noting Faith's cautious attitude.

"I know, I'm just not real used to this." She held Buffy's hand more firmly, running her thumb once over the knuckles. She gave Kennedy a cursory glance and found her looking the other way, giving them as much privacy as was possible in the cell.

"The thing is B, I don't expect you to get over this over night, I'd like it sure, but I'm a realist, ya know. I've got a lot of making up to do, not just to you, to everyone, but mostly to you, and not just for the last five months. And I'm gonna do it, I hope, whether you believe me right now or not…"

Buffy quietly interrupted, "I want to believe you."

"But I can't do what I need to do to make us right, _right now_. I can't do it properly at least, not when I have all this other stuff I have to concentrate on. And this isn't me trying to cop out, if I don't do what Deb D tells me to when she tells me to, then things between us don't stand a chance anyway."

"I get that," Buffy squeezed Faith's hand.

"So I guess I'm asking for time too." Faith said seriously.

Buffy nodded, "Then I guess if we both just need time, this should be pretty simple. We just give each other time."

"You really think its going to be that easy?"

"We'll just take things slow. We know we want to be together in the end, so we'll just hang in there until its time, and then we'll be together."

Faith frowned, mostly from disbelief, "So that's it, we're good?"

Buffy shook her head, almost smiling, "Oh no, good is a long way off, but… we're on the road to good; we've just passed the first big freeway sign to good."

"Well, then, good." Faith's smile was infectious, and Buffy squeezed her hand again, feeling closer to good than she was prepared to let on just yet.

Kennedy leapt from the cot. "Finally!"

Looking up, Buffy realised Deputy Sam was back and unlocking the door. Kennedy risked getting herself re-arrested with the way she pushed past him to get out, but he was too interested in getting home to make a thing out of it.

Buffy followed at a steadier pace, and it was only when she was walking up the corridor to freedom, she realised Faith had never let go of her hand.

* * *

It was a sheepish group that met in front of Barnies again, shortly after midnight.

Giles was the first to break the oppressive silence, "I trust you all survived your incarceration with no lasting ill-effects?"

"We're good," Faith nodded.

"Just this side of peachy," Buffy nodded too.

"Bored out of my freaking brain," Kennedy muttered. "Listening to mush and mushier here."

"Yeah? Maybe you wanna shut your mush…" Faith started.

"Before one of us makes it mushier," Buffy finished.

"Shall we not start that again," Robin was the one to step in. "Not that a three-way cat fight isn't always fun, but we don't want to risk you all getting arrested, _again._"

"Yeah, the smart thing to do is to get home and figure out who's making us all lusty," Xander reminded them. "Before I start macking on Robin, or Will and Faith decide to give some free love a try."

"Don't even try it," Robin said with a grim smile. "All the magic induced lust in the world couldn't make you more attractive than one of the ladies here."

Nobody noticed the intensely heated look that Faith and Willow gave each other. Realising what they were doing, they both jerked their eyes away.

"I do believe it would be prudent to get home as soon as possible, however, I think I already may know who our spell-caster is," Giles explained.

"Giles, I know you probably won't believe me, but I swear it wasn't me," Willow sounded panicky.

"I do believe you, Willow," Giles promised. "I think its safe to say, whoever cast this spell, did so out of a desire for revenge and not to gain any of the… physical benefits, shall we say, for himself. Therefore you have no motive, which makes me doubly sure that despite the careless use of your powers this evening, you are not our culprit."

Willow hung her head, feeling exonerated and chastised in the same sentence.

Xander, standing behind her, gently squeezed her shoulders and she lifted her head again, ready to re-engage in the conversation. Her talk with Xander had helped her realise that the only way forward was to… go forward. Dwelling on what had happened over the previous twenty-four hours wasn't going to move things to a better place – they would just sink into the swamp of her own fear, jealousy and self-loathing, making everything stagnant and stinky.

"So if it's not me," she said chirpily, with forward momentum in mind. "Who is it?"

Giles shook his head slightly, blowing out an exasperated breath. "Let's all head home and sort it out once we're there."

"Uh, can Robin and I catch a ride?" Faith asked, looking up and down Boudenver's empty main street. "I don't fancy our chances of getting another taxi tonight."

Robin glanced at Faith, clearly surprised she still remembered he was there. He shot Buffy a look next and she looked away as subtly as possible. It wasn't that his look was angry, but it made her feel unjustifiably guilty, and it wasn't fair. Okay, so maybe she should have been upfront with him earlier, explained that she and Faith were a possibility, and then maybe he wouldn't be feeling so used and hurt now, but _she hadn't known_, not for sure.

So sue her for not wanting to risk humiliation by jumping the gun. The hurt in his eyes was Faith's responsibility, so why wasn't he looking at her?

"Of course, there's plenty of room in the back of the truck," Giles mentioned as he walked towards it.

"Or we have the car," said Willow. "There's room for two more besides Kennedy and I."

Kennedy shook her head, "You have room for three; I'm going with Giles."

"Kennedy!" Willow called after her, but the younger slayer ignored her, striding into the alley way beside Barnies without looking back.

This time, when Willow's head slumped, it was harder to find the impetus to keep focused, but she squared her shoulders resolutely. "Okay, why don't Xander, Faith and Robin come with me, and Buffy, you go with Giles, that way he can fill you in on our mysterious magick user."

To Buffy, it made sense, but she was reluctant to follow the path of sense right now. She seemed rooted to the spot as she tried to find a reason less obvious than the obvious for why Willow's travel arrangements were a bad idea.

Faith had no such qualms about being sensible or obvious.

"No," she shook her head, giving first Robin a long look – assessing how blunt to be – and then turning friendlier eyes to the blonde. "I'm riding with B; we still have shit to discuss. Catch ya back at the house, Rob." She turned away. "So where's this car?"

* * *

Willow was driving and Xander had called shotgun, not that either Buffy or Faith minded. They sat in the back together as the car drove the pitch dark road to home. A foot of unoccupied car seat lay between them, but they were locked by their eyes – all they could really see of each other in the orangey glow of the dashboard lights – and the air between them was thrumming with a sexual charge. Buffy didn't know if it was the spell or them, but it was making her hot.

"So what did you want to discuss?" Buffy asked, quiet enough that Willow and Xander wouldn't hear over the low volumed radio.

"Nothing." The full moon shone through the window, illuminating Faith's smile, before the car drove into the trees and the darkness got darker. "I just wanted to ride with you."

"I wanted to ride with you too," Buffy admitted.

On some invisible cue, they found each others hands. "Never figured you for a wanton hand holder," Buffy smirked, "But it's a nice surprise."

"Surprising myself here." Faith admitted, squeezing her hand a little. "Need me some hot action, stat, B; to balance out all this innocent stuff, ya dig?"

"I dig," Buffy grinned. "But, as much as you are hot action personified, I'm pretty sure right now it's just the spell talking."

"What?" Faith asked, distracted as she slid her ass across the seat, closer to Buffy, but not as close as either of them wanted to be.

"The lust spell, Faith, is aggravating our hormones."

"I'm not feeling all that aggravated right now."

"It's the spell, Faith," Buffy repeated, trying not to breathe Faith in as she sidled even closer.

"I'm fine with it."

"Maybe, but according to my map, Hot Action is the other side of Good."

"Or maybe," Faith offered as her fingertips trailed down Buffy's cheek to her chin. "Hot Action is the short cut we have to take to get to Good."

"Or, maybe…"

Buffy took hold of Faith's fingers – now they were holding both hands – before Faith could swoop in and kiss her… because then she would be lost forever to her fate as Faith's bitch.

"…Taking that shortcut could get us lost in the wilds of Is That Really All You're Interested In? Or stuck on the side of the This Relationship Isn't Working For Me, So I'm Dumping Your Ass highway."

"Wow," Faith nodded slowly. "The places on your map have really detailed names, huh?"

Buffy chuckled, "Sounds like it."

"Okay," Faith nodded some more, settling back a little as she thought something through. "If you're saying what I think you're saying – and, sweet Jesus, I hope you're not – then all the more reason to let this spell do its worst now, right, before Giles or Red breaks it and we lose the excuse."

"I'm not sure that kind of sense is the sensible kind," Buffy said slowly as Faith leaned into her again. "I'm supposed to be staying strong, not leaping on the first excuse that comes along."

"Well don't take this the wrong way, B, but you've obviously been going with the flow all day, why the hell are you so determined to be strong now its me," Faith sounded hurt.

"You're more important."

"Then all the more reason to give in," Faith breathed. "Blame it on the spell. We'll start fresh once it's broken."

"You're not supposed to be doing this," Buffy pointed out, but she was looking deep into Faith's eyes; mentally she'd already given in, how she was still holding out physically, she didn't know.

"Pushing each other's what we do best, B."

"True."

"So, I'm gonna kiss you now, and you're gonna relax and enjoy every second of it, okay?" Faith murmured, inching their faces closer. "No guilt, this is like a free play, doesn't even count to our overall score; just a chance to practice technique for when it really counts…"

Buffy, deciding she could take no more of the teasing proximity, cut Faith's babble off with her lips.

Buffy's hands slid around Faith's shoulders before they separated, one sliding down the length of Faith's side as the other curled around her neck, holding her close. Faith's hands cupped Buffy's cheeks, pushing her against the seat back as she moved to a semi-straddling position, completely forgetting the car wasn't moving along fast by itself. Buffy wasn't caring that they weren't alone either, this felt too good to stop; she wriggled on the seat, trying to get Faith to sit fully on her lap, as she opened her mouth to Faith's keen tongue.

"Ahem," the sound of Willow clearing her throat was filtered into Buffy's ears through Faith's fingers, but it didn't sound important, so she ignored it.

"Do you think they'll keep at it long enough to get Andrew's camera," Xander's voice sounded a long way off.

"Tell ya what, you go get it, I'll stay here and, uh, keep watch, just in case they stop," Willow sounded breathless.

"No, you should go get it," Xander argued. "You'll be better at that than me."

"Where as no one can ogle quite like Xander Harris." Willow giggled.

"I have to play to my strengths…"

Reluctantly, Buffy claimed back her tongue, and even more reluctantly, gave Faith back hers, as she pulled back enough to whisper,

"I think they're talking about us."

"Probably, we are wicked oglesome," Faith grinned.

Buffy giggled; letting her lips brush against Faith's again. Nope, brushing would never be enough; full lip contact was the only way to go. She tilted her head back, moaning into the kiss as Faith pressed harder against her, rubbing, almost grinding; her skirt was short enough to be in the way and not in the way at once, Buffy's thumbs brushed the stiff hem, lifting it, her fingers taking a walk beneath…

"AHEM!" Willow and Xander asserted in unison.

Buffy's eyes opened in alarm and she pushed distance between herself and Faith. "Oh, right, yeah, stopping."

"Are you two pervs still here," Faith groaned irritably, unstraddling Buffy. "Don't you have a Magick abuser to apprehend?"

"Well, Buffy's usually our apprehender, and I have a feeling her apprehending ability is compromised when she's sucking your face, so…?" Xander shrugged, and then winced as Buffy cuffed the back of his head. "Blind side! No fair!"

"And I've grounded myself," Willow looked uncomfortable. "The lust spell is making me unstable – kinda obviously – so I'm not using any more magick until its stopped, possibly longer if Giles is really mad at me."

"Well they say the hardest part is admitting you have a problem," Faith said amiably, opening the back door and jumping out of the car.

"I don't have a problem!" Willow snapped, getting out of the car too. "I had a problem, sure, but I'm over it. My abstinence now is just a precaution, and one I'm taking willingly, not a big cause for alarm, okay?"

"Sure, whatever," Kennedy muttered as everyone met up again at the front door.

Willow gave her girlfriend a pained look, Kennedy ignored her again. She'd been thinking about Willow non-stop all the way home, and all the time she'd been locked up, but she was no closer to figuring out how to deal with it all. She wished finding out Willow had kissed Oz could have killed her feelings, stamped out the love she was starting to feel in earnest for the woman, because then it might not have hurt so much. But it obviously hadn't, because she was hurting like a bitch right now.

"So, Giles, who's the who?" Buffy asked her Watcher as he joined them. "Who do you want me to get all apprehendy with?"

Giles sighed. "It was remembering the Chaos Mage in the sixties that lead me to our current culprit. As Willow said, many lust spells are used as a mild form of revenge, and lust is a well known form of chaos – the affects it has on the mind and the body, the domino effect it can have on those around the accursed. For example, I doubt the guilty party ever intended for Robin or… or Oz to be drawn into the..."

"Get to the point," Faith and Kennedy said as one.

"Yes, of course, sorry," Giles cleared his throat. "Taking all of that into account, who is more likely to be responsible than a Chaos Mage looking for revenge? Or a Chaos Mage living under our very roof?"

The group gathered by the front porch were quiet as they looked around at each other; no light was being shed by any of them though.

"But Giles, none of us is a Chaos Mage," Buffy pointed out what she thought was the obvious.

"Not exactly, no," Giles gave a pretty terrifying smile as he pushed through the assemblage and opened the front door.


	18. Act 4:3

Hi. Thanks for the reviews for the last part. More are always welcome :) Nearly at the end of this episode now. I hope you've enjoyed it.

* * *

Craig's head popped up over the arm of the couch as the door burst open and half of the household stormed in – not looking happy. He got a bad feeling immediately.

"We weren't doing anything!" Andrew squealed in his ear as he saw his Lord and Masters entering.

"Oh for Heaven's sake." His Godfather glared down at him. "Put down the bloody boy and put on your shirt.

Yep, really bad feeling. Rubbing his ringing ear, Craig scrambled off the couch, leaving Andrew to clutch a cushion to his bare chest.

"He's right; we weren't doing nothing, just kissing. See? Belt still buckled." He pointed at it before scooping up his sweater from the floor. "Wouldn't disrespect your house like that Uncle Rubear."

"Don't talk to me about disrespecting my bloody…" Giles trailed off, looking furious. "I welcomed you into my home, despite your dubious reasons for being here, and this is how you repay my trust, is it?"

"I…" Craig wasn't entirely sure of what he was being accused, and he didn't want to admit to anything he hadn't done, but then he didn't want to piss the old boy off anymore than he already was either. "I'm not sure, sir, maybe if you told me what you think I did…"

"Why you little…" Craig ducked out of the way as Giles went to lunge at him, and then watched warily as the older man took a step back instead, trying to calm his temper.

"It's Craig?" He heard Kennedy ask.

"Well he does know some magick." Willow said next.

"Who is he?" Asked the tall, black new arrival.

"Someone who needs his ass kicked so hard it doesn't pop back into shape until next week!" Craig gulped as he heard Faith cracking her knuckles.

"But why turn us back into horny teenagers?" Xander asked. "What's in it for him?"

Andrew shouted over the silence on one side of him and the irate muttering on the other. "Somebody tell me what is going on?"

Craig weighed up his options as he looked from Giles' fury to Andrew's confusion to the Greek chorus standing by the foot of the stairs – and realised he had none. Well, none that were appealing on any level.

"So, you know?" he started with. "Figured my little joke out, ay? Sorry. Probably not as funny for all of you," he apologised, as he backed away from them. "But bad taste practical jokes? I can't seem to help myself. So I should probably seek some, er, outside… help!"

Turning he made a dash for the kitchen and then grunted as something landed on his back, slamming his forehead into the swing door. He staggered back, not staying upright under his own steam right away.

"Bloody Goorzar," he slurred, rubbing his forehead where it had made impact. "She 'ates me now."

"Not Goorzar." He was vaguely aware of being swung back around to face the room by his shoulders. "Better hygiene, better hair and way better at being pissed at you right now."

"Okay." He tried focusing; it wasn't all that easy to start with. "You caught me. Games up, Sonny-Jim. I'll come along quietly. Just… just let me lie down for a while."

"No." Buffy said firmly, keeping him on his feet.

"Why are you roughing up Craig?" Andrew demanded, springing to his feet. "Leave him alone."

Giles pushed him back to the couch without a glance, asking with exasperation,

"Please Craig; tell me this was a Revenge Thy Father scenario and not just a way into this ninny's knickers?"

Faith – the rogue, the murderer, the really good 'bad ass' glarer – came over. Craig found focusing a little easier, intimidation helping to clear the fog. She didn't stab him, but she did keep glaring, her face getting closer to his all the time. When his eyes were as open as they could be, she jerked closer,

"Boo!"

His knees buckled at the surprise, but Buffy kept him upright again.

"Gee, I can't believe this is the little shit that's been playing us?" Faith tutted, reaching out to roughly, but not painfully, ruffle his hair. "Damn, B. Remember when the big bad's were actually big and bad?"

"I don't know, I kinda like the little bad's – they break with so much less hassle." Buffy gave Craig – who was a good couple of inches taller than her – a little shake that rattled his teeth.

"Okay girls," Giles cautioned them. "At least give him some space to explain himself."

Faith backed off completely, taking a seat in the armchair. Buffy kept a hold of him, but relaxed.

"Well, Rayne," Giles crossed his arms… crossly. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I, er…" Craig looked up, ready to confess all.

"Whoa there." Buffy swung him around by his shoulders again, this time to face her. "Rayne?"

He gazed at her unsteadily, "Personally, I prefer Craig."

"Craig Rayne." Oh God, she didn't like what she was thinking, but… It was like one of those magic eye pictures. She hadn't seen it at first, but now she had, she couldn't stop seeing it. "Craig Rayne?"

"Yeah." He was grinning at her dopily, obviously amused by her retarded repeating of his name.

"Craig Rayne," she quietly repeated once more before the next few sentences exploded from her. "_Ethan Rayne_ has a _son_? And you – _you're him_? You're _Ethan Rayne's son! _And you didn't tell anyone?"

"Well, Uncle Rubear knows."

She let go of him, her fists balling at her sides and it was an effort not to reach out and shake him again. She would feel better if he looked ashamed at being found out, or just a little embarrassed probably would have done. He was neither. His shoulders straightened as he took in her angry expression, and his eyes – unclouding – never wavered from her own.

"Well?" she demanded, because it was all she could think to say.

He looked like he didn't understand the question, and she couldn't blame him for that.

Eventually, he said, "I figured you would have known by now."

"Nope, this is a little on the new side," she said, poking a finger at his chest. "Because _you_ never bothered to introduce yourself, and you can't tell me it's because you didn't think I'd be interested."

Craig seemed to think that over for a second before he held out his hand to Buffy. "I'm Craig Rayne. Son of Ethan Rayne and Rosanna Giles. It's a pleasure to formally make your acquaintance, Miss Summers." When she didn't take his hand, he let it drop back to his side.

She couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny or if this was a genuine attempt to undo his mistake, so she just stared at him, waiting to see what he would do or say next.

"Buffy, please…" Giles began.

"No! Don't 'please' me!" Buffy snapped at him. "He's Ethan's son! And you didn't tell me."

"Who's Ethan?" Faith and Kennedy asked almost together.

"You know, Ethan! Creator of Halloween monster mayhem. Producer of immaturising candy. Turner of Giles into Demon-ness. His twisted, amoral coward of a dad!" Buffy ranted, her eyes never leaving Craig's.

Craig's own eyes narrowed at the insults, and he hissed, "You're lucky you're a woman."

Buffy blinked; his answer surprising her and gaining him a snippet of respect. She'd assumed he was restraining the anger evident in his eyes out of fear of The Slayer.

Andrew was suddenly up again, moving out of range before Giles could give him another 'sit down' push.

"We can't be held accountable for what certain misguided members of our families do. Even if they aren't always shining examples of humanity or they sometimes… influence us, maybe, we should only be judged on our own bad deeds."

"You're not exactly the best person to be preaching that, Andrew," Buffy reminded him. "Your low-life brother bred a pack of vicious Hell-hounds and set them on the Prom. You, on the other hand, teamed up with the evil-geek squad, tried to take over _my _town and people got killed, nearly me… again – that makes you worse."

"Why did you come here, Craig?" Buffy asked, getting back in his face. "And don't say it was to see Giles. You're Ethan's kid. Ethan, who is the enemy of Giles and as you've probably guessed – I'm not a huge fan, either."

"Why do you think?" Craig shouted at her. Suddenly tears of anger were making his dark eyes bright. "My dad's in Broadmoor because of you. Because of what you did! He's gonna rot in there and it's your fault. I had to do something. He's my dad!"

The room was silent after Craig's outburst as everyone looked at each other.

"What's Broadmoor?" Xander asked, eventually.

Craig wiped his eyes roughly and stared at Buffy, his chin raised angrily as he waited for her to answer.

"I don't know," she admitted before hazarding a guess. "Army detention camp, maybe?"

Clearly it wasn't the right answer; Craig's dark eyes burned like super-heated mahogany. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he took a step closer to her.

"You don't even know. Do you even care? Not by the bloody looks of it. Did you even for a second stop to wonder what the outcome of your little trick might be?"

"Strangely, no," Buffy snapped back. "And if you wanna talk about tricks – Ethan was the one turning people into demons just for fun."

"Being locked up in a filthy prison for the criminally insane for the rest of his life is a pretty high price to pay for a joke, don't you think?" Craig sneered. "It's not like he'd have ever left Uncle Rubear like a demon…"

Buffy cut him off. "I think you think too highly of your dad. Of course he would have left Giles like that. He was all ready to skip town when I caught him. And… Rubear?"

Craig looked embarrassed on top of furious; the tears came again. "Bitch."

"Don't you _ever_…" Buffy began, reaching out to grab the front of his sweater.

"Buffy, enough!" Giles shouted over her.

As Craig squirmed out of her reach, Giles grabbed him and held onto him tight. Craig struggled, and Giles had to dance to keep his grip, but eventually he manoeuvred them so that Craig's face was turned into his shoulder, and he held him there with one hand to the back of the boy's head.

"Enough," he repeated, gently. "Andrew's right. We can't be held responsible for the sins of our fathers."

The silence almost came back, only the muffled sobs coming from Craig keeping it at bay. Buffy dropped her gaze to the carpet, embarrassed. Others shuffled their feet. Andrew cleared his throat, opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again as he looked at Craig with distressed eyes.

Eventually, Willow spoke softly, "I'm all for only being judged for my own mistakes, but there is still the little matter of the spell."

"And that _is_ all down to him," Buffy muttered in agreement.

"No," Willow shook her head quickly. "That's not where I was going."

"And 'sides," Faith shrugged. "Sounds like we got off easy compared to his pop. Honestly, I spent a couple of weeks on the psych ward at Stockton… I'll take getting horny over that any day of the week."

Buffy nodded in sympathy, remembering her own times in hospital – both real and demonically induced. "You have a point. Horny's not so bad, but it sucks when everyone thinks you're crazy 'cause you see vampires."

"Ethan must have been bragging about his magick," said Xander. "That would have the same effect on doctors as claiming to kill vampires in your spare time.

"He wasn't bragging," Craig, still sniffing, pulled away from Giles. "He wasn't bragging! Your Government scientists experimented on him, and then when they couldn't find a button or a… a gland that controlled his power, they had him extradited back to England under false medical papers and army reports. He didn't even get a trial; they couldn't risk him telling the truth, he was just banged up."

"Sounds like a good conspiracy theory," Robin commented.

"Doesn't make it not true," Faith countered.

"And when you include the Initiative, it makes it very likely to be true," Buffy said quietly. "Riley told me Ethan would just be detained for a week or so and then deported. Seemed like a great way to deal with that pain in my ass; and I didn't think any further than that. Damn, how was I so naïve?"

"Buffy, you couldn't of known," Willow promised.

"Yeah, Buff, we all thought the Initiative were the good guys then," Xander backed her up too.

"No, I was the one that trusted them, you guys aren't to blame," Buffy said firmly. "And I should have had Riley check on Ethan after they tried to kill me."

"They tried to kill you?" Craig asked, rubbing his palms over his face.

"Yeah."

Craig chuckled and Buffy glared.

Faith jumped back to her feet, "Okay, Brit-boy, don't push your luck. How about you break this spell now, or I'll lock you in a room with five extra horny slayers tonight; and remember… Slayer only comes in girl."

Craig wrinkled his nose, "I'll break it. The stuff's in the dorm. Come on."

"So, I get the why he messed with us now," Buffy began as they walked as a group through the kitchen. "But we are still gonna be talking punishment at some point, right? I mean…his dad's locked up and that sucks, but it's not license to sneak over here and set magick on us."

"We'll see," was all Giles said. Striding purposefully ahead, he had one hand on Craig's shoulder as reassurance rather than restraint.

"I think we should just forget about it once the spell is broken," Andrew wasn't very good at the purposeful stride; he looked more like he was gambolling on the periphery. "What was the spell anyway? Am I under it? I don't feel any different. Anyway, Mr Giles, you can't send Craig home, not for avenging his Father. That's against, like, all the rules of destiny. Right, Xander?"

"Uh," Xander hesitated, before giving in to his inner geek. "Yeah; you can't mess with Father-avenging. Big no no in the superhero codebook. Could lead to all kinds of trouble."

"What about Mother-avenging?" Robin asked glancing, unnoticed, Buffy's way.

"That's more for super-villains and psychos," Xander shrugged.

"Oh, right," with a small smile, Robin said no more.

"You can't seriously be saying Craig shouldn't face a single repercussion, though," Kennedy checked. "I like the kid, and I don't know this Ethan guy, but I'm with Buffy – we can't just pretend it never happened, what sort of example is that to set."

"But no one got hurt, did they?" Andrew wheedled. "So…"

"No harm, no foul," Willow piped up, looking hopefully at Kennedy.

"There was harm, there was foul!" Buffy insisted. "I kissed Kennedy!"

Kennedy looked at her, hurt, and Faith started laughing.

"Not that kissing you was foul," Buffy backtracked, before giving up with a sigh. "I kissed Kennedy and now I'm being forced to have this conversation about kissing Kennedy – that counts are harm."

"I forgive you." Willow said quickly. "Uh, Kennedy, that is."

"Me too, though, right?" Buffy checked.

"Well, I don't know, Buffy; you kissed my girlfriend."

Buffy groaned, and then looked up to see Faith suddenly close by her side. "What, gonna give me a hard time for kissing Kennedy too?"

"No," Faith smiled, and then, making sure everyone could hear her, added. "I just want you to know: I forgive you. Ya know, for kissing Kennedy, only a few hours after boinking me. Technically, that was pretty damn wrong of you, B, but… I forgive you."

"Okay, thanks."

"Because, B," Faith continued cordially. "Everyone makes mistakes, some worse than other, granted, but they're still just mistakes, and forgiveness is divine, so I've been told. Letting go of that anger, all that blame, getting that unforgiveness off my chest…. feels good. Wanna try it?"

"Not right now."

"B!"

"You're already getting backseat privileges," Xander grinned. "What do you need forgiveness for? Holy, ow, mother of… Faith, that was my nipple!"

"Good; means I got what I was aiming for."

Craig stopped just outside the boy's dormitory. "You lot are going to shut up for one second while I break the spell, yeah?"

"Let's just get the stuff," Buffy pushed ahead and opened the door. "Then we can finally stop all these lusty shenaniga… ahhhh! Dawn, what are you doing?"

Considering the way Dawn and Reece were scrambling around on the bed to reach their clothes, it was a pretty stupid question. Oh God, her little sister had… and with…

Buffy's hand flew to her mouth, but whether to hold back her stomach or the angry outburst she could feel building, she wasn't sure.

Dawn shrieked her name, in that 'get out of my room' way she was so good at, but it wasn't going to work this time. For one, it wasn't her room, and even if it had been, this situation did not call for respecting one's baby sister's privacy.

God, she was going to kill her!

"Bollocks!" Reece muttered as he pulled his pants on as fast as he could.

"That's right, talk about 'em while you still got 'em, Buster," Faith was at her side, and it was only then that Buffy remembered everyone would have automatically walked in behind her.

No wonder Dawn was still screaming blue murder. This wasn't going to go down in the annals as the best first time ever. Still better than hers, though, Buffy thought.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Giles cuff Craig hard on the back of her the head. Good, saved her from reaching over to do it. The kid was yelping his innocence, and Giles grabbed him by the scruff of his sweater and physically dragged him from the room.

"Would you lot bloody clear out of here?" Reece demanded in his snobby accent.

Buffy blinked at his audacity, it was either that or tear his legs off, and then suddenly she was the least of his problems. Xander, coming from behind, launched himself further into the room, yelling threats as he bore down on Reece.

"Xander, stop!" Dawn yelled out, diving in front of him, defending Reece with just a sheet wrapped around her. "He hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Dawn, even though I am not looking at what you are not wearing, I find that hard to believe," Xander shouted, his eye firmly fixed on Reece.

"No!"

"_Feliece isram penees onise iseedies…"_

"Willow!" Buffy turned to her. "What the hell?"

"I'm not going to hurt him," the witch was obviously concentrating hard. "I'm just going to turn his penis inside out."

Buffy, shrugging, turned away without comment as Faith started laughing.

"And you don't think that might hurt him?!" Kennedy started dragging Willow from the dormitory by her wrist. "I'm all for kicking his ass, but not with magick!"

Buffy could hear Willow objecting, but their voices were getting further away.

Xander had managed to pull Reece – by the throat – out from behind Dawn.

"Buffy, do something!" Dawn squealed.

"Actually, if anyone's going to hit me…" Reece started before he had to turn his head quick. Xander's punch landed on his cheek. "Arrrh," he winced in pain. "I'd prefer it to be this git!"

Xander threw another punch that Reece just narrowly managed to dodge, and it was Xander's turn to wince as his fist hit the wooden wall.

"Okay, Xander, enough, stop!" Buffy called to him.

Xander's hand was still around Reece's throat. He made an amusing gurgling sound as Xander turned to speak to Buffy. "You're not serious?"

"'Fraid so," she nodded. "I wish I was wrong, but by the looks of it, Dawn was a willing…" Buffy couldn't go on with that line of thought. "I guess we weren't the only ones caught up in the spell. Go on into the house for me and make sure they're breaking the damn thing in there. Willow will have the supplies."

Xander poked his finger into Reece's chest. "You know she's underage, right? You didn't just get lucky tonight; you committed statutory rape, big night for the privileged Boy-Watcher, huh?"

"She's nearly seventeen, Dickhead!" Reece pushed his finger away.

"Uh, that's kinda my point… Dickhead!"

"Xander!" Buffy called him away before the punching could start again. "Please go."

Xander stared at Reece for a moment longer, slowly smiling until the other boy's eyes were darting from side to side, confused, trying to see what the joke was, and then he turned abruptly and walked away. Dawn didn't look at him as he left, and he didn't look at Dawn, but Buffy gave him a small smile in answer to the concerned rise of his eyebrow.

Buffy stood there, staring at Dawn, who was staring fearfully back, very quiet now.

Buffy gave a little shrug. "I don't even know what to say to you right now. I thought you had more respect for yourself, more respect for me; I guess I don't know you that well after all."

Reece was standing by the bed, buttoning his jeans. "Now with all due respect…"

"With all due respect, pal!" Faith spat in his direction. "You might wanna keep it zipped. Buffy might be above ripping your dick off, but I sure as hell ain't."

Reece nodded as he reached for his shirt, for once without his usual arrogance.

"Buffy, I'm sorry," said Dawn. "I do respect you. But we like each other, and we just got carried away. It's no big deal…"

"No big deal!" Buffy exploded. "How about teen pregnancy? How about STD's? Ya think they're no big deal? Because there are thousands of girls your age that would say differently!"

"We were careful," Dawn shot back.

Buffy looked away, pursing her lips. She'd already spotted the open condom wrapper on the top of Reece's locker.

"You know condoms are only like 97 effective, right?" Faith asked casually, her gaze travelling around the mostly bare room.

"They are?" Dawn gave Reece a slightly worried look.

"Plus they split all the time," Faith continued.

"They do?"

"It didn't," Reece assured her.

"But it could have," Dawn sounded suddenly angry with him. "You didn't tell me that!"

"You didn't ask." He replied calmly.

"Well I didn't know they could!"

"How's that my fault?"

Faith gave Buffy a wink, but Buffy wasn't ready to smile about this yet.

"Enough. Dawn, get dressed and… say goodnight. I'll be waiting outside."

Buffy looked at Reece, wanting to hit him herself, or at least say something so threatening he'd never even look at Dawn again, but it was a little late for that. He'd already done way more than look. And now it up to Dawn what happened next, hopefully anyway.

"Five minutes, Dawn," she added quietly before leaving the dormitory.

Faith was right behind and when Buffy stopped a few feet from the door, she bumped lightly against her back. Buffy felt arms come around her waist to gently squeeze her. Faith's chin fit perfectly on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Not really." Buffy admitted. "I'm just so angry, at myself mostly, and that makes me more angry, 'cause why am I to blame, you know? I didn't arrange for the cadets to come over here, I didn't make Reece so muffinly, I didn't give Dawn sixteen year old hormones, I didn't cast a lust spell over everyone…" Buffy ranted. "So why do I feel like I let her down? Like I let Mom down?"

"I don't know, but you shouldn't." Faith's voice was soft in her ear. "She's a big girl now, B, if she hadn't gotten her cherry popped tonight, it woulda just been some other night."

"Could you be less crude please?"

"Sure," Faith shrugged, "But I don't really get what the big deal is?"

"She's my baby sister!" Buffy spelled it out for her in a hiss, pulling away from Faith's arms and turning to face her. "And I let her sleep with that bastard in there."

"First of all, you didn't let Dawn do anything, she did it all by herself, well I'm sure the bastard did some of it…" seeing Buffy's expression, Faith raised her arms in defence. "…Okay, no need to go there. Second of all, it ain't really your place to let or not let Dawn do anything…"

"I'm her guardian!"

"No, you're her sister, and that's worth ten guardians from where I'm standing." Faith walked to the picnic table and hopped onto the top, letting her feet rest on the bench. "Think about it, who would you have listened to at sixteen? You're cool, experienced older sister, or your strict, stuffy, rule-making guardian?"

"I'm a cool guardian," Buffy pouted.

"No, you're a cool sister." Faith motioned for her to sit on the bench too. "I had you looking over my shoulder for a while there, B, so I can tell ya first hand that when it comes to you being the law-enforcer, ya suck. You get that nice thorny stick up your ass, and you let us lesser mortals have it."

Buffy walked up to the bench, but she didn't sit down.

"Is this all part of you making things up to me, because if this is the best you've got, it's going to be a long time before we… meet between the sheets, as they say."

"Damn!" Faith chuckled softly, and suddenly a hand snaked out, catching Buffy by the front of her pants and drawing her closer. "Obviously you forgot the bit where I said how cool a sister you are."

Buffy didn't fight it, letting herself be pulled closer to Faith; it was such a nice place to be. When her knees bumped the edge of the bench between Faith's legs, she let her wrists hang over Faith's shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm such a cool sister I left Dawn alone after midnight to be taken advantage of by that jerk. I should never have let her go out with him."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that would have stopped her," said Faith sarcastically. "I mean, tell a teenage girl not to go out with a guy that freakin' studly and she's goin' to listen for sure. Right after she does all her homework and eats all her greens."

Buffy frowned, "Dawn does do all her homework."

"Then count your chickens and be satisfied," Faith laughed.

"What?"

"You did a good job, B! Little sis is smart; capable; she can look after herself and she can look after other people. She was a freakin' rock back in Sunnydale, babe. You were too stressed to see it, maybe, but her game was tight. That's because of you."

Buffy shook her head, ready to protest, "No, it's Mom, if Dawn's everything you say, and I hope she is, it's down to Mom. I've barely been able…"

"Buffy," Faith said softly, using her full name because she knew it would get her more attention. "Joyce was a great mom, but, you said yourself, you've been the lil' brat's keeper for a while now, and… she's not in care, she's still in school, she… can handle a sword," Faith shrugged. "You should be proud of yourself; I know your Mom would be."

Buffy kept her mouth closed tight against the smile trying to shine through, her lips twitched a couple of times and in the end she gave up. She bit her bottom lip, her head swaying slowly from side to side.

"How am I supposed to stay mad at you when you suddenly come out with things like that, huh?" she asked, hooking her wrists comfortably behind Faith's neck.

Faith gave a small laugh, her arms sliding around Buffy's waist, "I was being serious; not trying to score forgiveness points."

"I know," Buffy smiled. "That's what got you such a high score."

"O…"

Buffy interrupted her with a kiss, her lips gently pressing into Faith's, soft, slow, enticing but entirely chaste. All the same, when she lifted her head to look into Faith eyes, they were darker than the sky above them with arousal.

"…kay," Faith finished, licking her lips. "Um, B? Don't think that 'slow' idea we had is gonna work out so well for me now."

"That's too bad, 'cause it's working just fine for me," Buffy lied, smirking. "And despite your wonderful speech, it doesn't change the fact that my sister lost her virginity tonight with a complete jerk – and I still have to deal with it."

"Deal with what, B?" Faith groaned. "We agreed, she was gonna do it sometime. So she did it now instead of next week or next year. She had the sense to be careful, so there's nothing to deal with!"

"Didn't you hear me? He's a jerk!" Buffy insisted. "He's worse than a jerk, he's an…"

Faith interrupted her, "Yeah, well, when are you going to get it, B, most men are."

"That's not true, there are good guys out there, and I don't want my Dawn ending up with a jerky one, okay? God, I handled tonight all wrong." Buffy pulled out of Faith's loose embrace and started to pace. "And I can't believe I left her in there with him. What was I thinking? It's been way more than five minutes. I should be dragging her out…"

Faith stepped off of the bench and caught her arm just as Buffy was about to head back to the dorm. door, "And what's that gonna achieve. You'll be mad, she'll be mad, and then she'll start doing things just to spite you."

Buffy tried to pull her arm away, "Yeah, well, what if she's in there right now, thinking she's doing things with my permission!"


	19. Act 4:4

Hi guys, this is the last chapter of **Love is a 4 letter word. **I hope everyone's enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. This episodes been a lot of fun for me getting to mess with them all :). Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a review, there have been a lot and you would not believe the size of the smile that gives me.

* * *

The dormitory had fallen silent after the Slayers' exit. Reece was staring thoughtfully into a mirror at the bruise on his cheek and gently rubbing the stinging, red skin of his throat. Dawn stayed under the covers to pull on her underwear and pants, only emerging to grab her white shirt that had been thrown on to Peter's old bed.

When she was fully dressed, she turned to Reece's back with a nervous chuckle. "I thought Buffy was going to go apocalyptic when she saw us, but she was pretty cool, don't you think?"

"Yes; she left the violence to her monkey-boy," Reece said, not looking around.

"Don't call Xander a monkey-boy," Dawn countered, frowning at Reece's tone.

"I believe, when I'm the one with the hand print on my throat, I have the right to call the bugger responsible anything I like."

"I'm sorry," Dawn winced as she saw just how sore his neck looked. No wonder he wanted to lash out a bit, and he'd been good enough to not make a thing out of it while the others were here. "Did he really hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine, leave it." Reece assured her, stepping away from her as she tried to touch the red-blue blotch on his cheek.

Dawn dropped her hand, stepping back, hurt by the curtness of his words. "Sorry."

He sighed deeply, and finally looked her in the eye again. "No, I am. This was a mistake, my mistake."

"What?" Dawn whispered, not understanding.

"It's not you, Sweetheart," Reece promised, speaking softly as he took her hand and lead her back to the bed. They sat down next to each other. "Tonight was really…" he smiled shyly at her, "… really nice, but this was too soon for us to get so… close. It's my fault, I should have been stronger, but you're so…" he smiled again, not so shy this time, and Dawn automatically smiled back. "But you being gorgeous is no excuse for my behaviour," he continued seriously. "God only knows what Mr Giles is thinking of me right now, and your sister..!" Reece stood up and began to pace. "They need to be able to trust me, and I don't think they're going to find that very easy after what they walked in on."

"Reece," Dawn stood up, getting in the way of his pacing. "It'll be fine. Buffy won't stay mad for long, she can't; and Giles doesn't get a say in who I spend my time with. He's Buffy's Watcher, not mine."

"Perhaps you're right," Reece nodded carefully. "But I'm not prepared to take too many chances where your sister is concerned, Sweetheart. I think its best if we cool it just for a little while, let her calm down about it, what do you think?"

"I think I don't want my sister dictating who I can sleep with, not unless I get to veto some of her partners too." Dawn fidgeted on the spot as some invisible hot thing poked at her deep between her legs. That was… ow! She sat back down on the edge of the bed to try and lessen it.

Reece looked at her, piqued. "Great, well, while you fight that battle, I'll be fighting the one to keep my place here as a Watcher cadet. If we both win, I'll meet you for a victory beer, but you'd better go now."

Dawn stood up again, ignoring the soreness in her thighs and other tender places. "Alright. So how long do you think we should lay low for?"

"Well, that depends," Reece didn't add more as he walked her to the door.

Dawn stopped just shy of the threshold, "On what?"

Reece chuckled under his breath. Stroking a thumb down Dawn's cheek, he leaned in to give her a short, sweet kiss on the lips.

"I had a wonderful night, Dawn, we should definitely do it again some time," he promised, and after one last kiss on the cheek, he opened the door for her.

Dawn walked outside, turning to look back at him as soon as her feet touched the grass. "This feels weird," she admitted. "I kinda feel like I'm never going to see you again."

"Don't be daft," his chuckle was louder this time, "I'll see you in the morning for breakfast."

Dawn smiled, shaking away the strange paranoia that had washed over her. It was all Buffy's fault for barging in like that. Dawn had been hoping to lie in Reece's arms for a few hours, acclimatising to her new status as non-virgin. But as it turned out, she'd been catapulted into the new role and now everyone knew, and Reece was freaking out. Not surprising with the way Xander had acted; _and_ Faith had threatened him.

"Okay, see you in the morning."

Reece pulled the door closed after she'd gone and ran his hands through his hair, smiling.

That had been fun. Pity the whole damn house had run in on them, it would have been interesting to see how long he could keep Dawn quiet about it.

He returned to the small mirror he'd propped up on his locker and looked at the bruise again. It hadn't really hurt that much when Harris had punched him. Either the adrenaline at being caught had lessened the sting or the older man had been holding back. It ached now though. He'd like some ice to put on it, but wasn't going to risk going into the house tonight.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, he wondered just how much of a mess he'd made for himself here. It depended on what he did next, he supposed. If he played the dutiful and smitten boyfriend to Dawn, old Rupert probably wouldn't do anything at all, and it would most definitely piss off her bitch of a sister.

Still, it seemed like a lot of bother, now the chase was over.

* * *

Buffy saw Dawn come out of the dormitory and turned to face her, crossing her arms, and looking as stern as she could. Not that Dawn could probably see her effort properly in the dark.

Dawn looked for a second like she was going to ignore her and walk straight past, but then obviously thought better of it and came to stand in front of her.

"Is this where you yell at me?" she asked, sounding bored. "Because if so can you make it quick, 'cause I really just wanna have a bath and go to bed."

"Feel dirty, do you?" Buffy asked, keeping her voice neutral.

"No, just…" Dawn shook her head, deciding to say no more. "So… the yelling… come on."

Buffy bit back her anger at the attitude on display. Faith had been right; making Dawn mad wouldn't get anyone anywhere. What was it Willow had once said? You catch more flies with Twinkies.

"I'm not going to yell, Dawnie, but I am going to say that you made a very adult choice tonight and you… not so much with the adult yet. I know you're mature for your age, but you are still not at the age where the decision you made is right…" Buffy struggled over the right words to use, trying to remember what her mom had said to her so that she could do it better.

"You were my age," Dawn countered.

"No, I was a… good, nearly, six months older and…" Okay, she was losing it here.

"Okay, well I bet Faith was way younger than me," Dawn said rudely, waving at the brunette standing behind Buffy.

"Yeah, damn straight I was," Faith chuckled. "But do you really wanna walk my path, Twinks?"

"Uh, no," Dawn muttered quietly.

"Then listen to your sis."

Dawn looked away.

"Dawn," Buffy began again. "Listen, I'm not mad at you, okay? Well, actually, I am a little, because you should know better, but then maybe you don't because of your _age, _but… not all guys, even human ones, are nice."

"I'm not a kid, Buffy. I know there are assholes out there. Reece isn't one of them. You can't see it, because you don't know him as well as I do."

"Okay," Buffy said quietly.

What was the point of arguing anyway? Dawn had done what she had done whether Reece was a nice guy or not. Time would tell which of them was right. Buffy hoped she was the one who was wrong, for her sister's sake, but there was a little tiny bit of her that wanted to be right; so that she would be justified in Dawn's eyes for putting her through this in the first place. If she was wrong, Dawn might never trust her judgement again, and, damn it, she was the older sister, and she was her guardian even if Faith said it was a negative. If Buffy was no longer found worthy of respect, well, it wasn't too late for Dawn to drop out of school and become a delinquent.

"So I can go?" Dawn asked impatiently when Buffy didn't add anything.

Buffy nodded, but grabbed Dawn's arm as she was about to walk away. "Just remember that I love you, okay, and you can talk to me, about anything, anything at all and…and I'll listen, and I won't get mad."

"Uh, okay," Dawn seemed a little surprised by the emotion in Buffy's voice.

"I'm sorry you didn't feel you could talk to me about how you were feeling," Buffy went on. "About the wanting to… well, you know, but in future, if there's anything you want to discuss or…or just give voice to your thoughts with little to no input from me, I'm here."

"I can't come to you with everything, Buffy."

"Yes you can, even if its something you think is embarrassing; chances are I've already been there and picked up the health leaflets…"

"Buffy!" Dawn hissed, her eyes darting to Faith, who was doing her level best not to laugh.

"I mean it! I'm not mom, and I'm not some wrinkly old guardian either. I know our roles have been kind of abnormal these last few years, but I'm still your sister. You used to come to me with every question you had, I just want you to know you still can, okay?"

"Okay," Dawn felt she should be discomfited by the open sentimentality Buffy was displaying, but it was such a rare thing these days... She felt her eyes tear up as she gave her big sister a shaky smile. "Thanks. You can come to me too."

Buffy chuckled, more so as the taller girl gave her a sudden swift hug. "Yeah, well, you never know, it might happen. Now go take your bath."

Dawn nodded and started to walk back to the house.

"Hey, squirt!"

Dawn looked back at Faith.

"Grab the table salt on your way up and dump a load in the bath," Faith advised. "Helps… ya know, down there."

Dawn frowned in confusion, but nodded a few times and left.

Buffy waited until the back door shut behind Dawn before she asked,

"Does the salt really help?"

"Supposedly. It's a tip my Watcher gave me."

"Wesley?" Buffy laughed.

"No, doofus, my first Watcher. Alicia." Faith came closer and the two stood there, almost toe to toe, but not touching.

"Alicia's a pretty name."

"Yeah, she was a pretty lady," Faith said wistfully.

Buffy's nose wrinkled a little. "And you had sex with her? Did the Council know? 'Cause I bet they went…"

"B, I did not have sex with my Watcher! Any of them. Gross me out why don'cha."

"But you just said…"

"That she gave me the tip, yeah. I wasn't screwing her though; she just knew I was screwing other people."

"Oh," Buffy said quietly, looking down at their feet. "I guess you've had a lot of, uh… partners, huh?"

"That is not a conversation we are havin' B," Faith said adamantly. "At least, not tonight."

"Okay," Buffy nodded, letting it go easily for now. It wasn't really a conversation she wanted to have any time soon either. Brightening, she said instead. "Come with me, I have something to show you." She took Faith's hand and started to lead her across the grass.

"Saw it last night, but that don't mean I'm not happy to take a second look," Faith grinned.

Buffy laughed, Faith was so not getting the whole 'going slow' thing. Taking her keys from her pocket she found the one for the training barn with a little difficulty, thanks to the poor light, but eventually she got the door open and pushed it wide.

"Ta da!" she announced. Inside was pitch blackness. Obviously Xander still hadn't fitted the door sensor. "Oops, hang on a minute."

In a moment or two she found the switches and flicked all of them on, dazzling their dark-accustomed eyes.

"Holy…" Faith didn't finish her thought as she walked deep into the room and turned around a few times on the spot, taking it all in.

"Isn't it?" Buffy beamed.

She'd known Faith would love it as much as her. Of course, Kennedy loved it too, but she'd never had the experience of trying to train between the study table and the card index in the Sunnydale High library.

"This is something else," Faith breathed, walking to the weight machines first and then over to peer into the well-stocked weapons cage, where lots of shiny new Slayer-toys were hanging up.

She hopped up onto the little raised stage area, walking across the wooden boards before stepping onto the training mats stacked along side. She stayed there for a moment, checking out the room from the higher vantage point and then, without warning, she jumped out towards the line of punching bags.

Faith's skirt floated up like a denim tutu while she was in the air, making Buffy grin, and then Faith's body twirled into a spinning kick, connecting solidly with the nearest bag and setting it swinging wildly, making Buffy grin even more.

Landing gracefully, Faith hugged the bag to settle it down, grinning at Buffy. "Nice facility, B. You planning on training a few Bat-slayer's in here?"

"Batman never had a trampoline," Buffy said, going to the corner where the stereo system was set up.

Early nineties dance music suddenly blasted from the speakers around the room, until Buffy quickly lowered the volume – after all it was well after midnight now.

"Are we gonna areobicize, B?" Faith gently mocked the music as she walked to where Buffy was.

"No, F," Buffy laughed, grabbing her hand and leading her to her favourite corner of the room. "We're going to bounce!"

"You're kidding me, right?" Faith looked at the trampoline like it was a torture instrument.

"Nope," Buffy jumped onto the stretchy surface. "Now get your ass up here, baby."

Faith watched Buffy, ready to refuse, but it only took a few moments of seeing the blonde getting all hot and sweaty and… bouncy, before Faith gave in and leapt up along side her.

Grinning with childish excitement Buffy grabbed Faith's hands and, well, bounced.

* * *

"There, done," Craig nodded to himself as the canary feather and pig-grease muck dissolved into a fine blue mist. "Assuming I did it right, the spell's over."

Everyone in the kitchen turned to Willow.

She was still looking into the sink where the de-spelling had taken place. The mug they'd used was a mess of ceramic gloop now, and with the open window the blue smoke was getting wisped away.

Craig was good, considering he'd had no actual training and had learnt the craft from reading exercise books Ethan had scribbled in during his education of the arts. It had taken Willow a few years before she'd been able to perform a complicated spell like this with absolutely no exploding utensils to show for it.

"Uh, yeah, it's broken," Willow nodded, noticing the attention. "Nicely done, Craig, although not so nicely cast in the first place," she added sourly.

Craig looked away, rinsing his hands of fat in the sink.

"Yes, well, it's very late," Giles said. "Let's all get to bed… separately," he added when Xander smirked at him. "And forget today ever happened."

Craig smiled until Giles, heading through to the living room, continued in after thought, "Except Craig's punishment; let's not forget that."

"Here, here," Kennedy said, shooting Craig a fierce look. "And you better hope we _can_ forget about this."

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "The last thing we need is for today to have far-reaching consequences. If Dawn's pregnant, if Willow and Kennedy split up, if I'm permanently stuck gay and can never again truly appreciate Seven of Nine's bio suits… We'll make sure the punishment outweighs the crime. We may even make the punishment a whole crime in itself."

"I never meant for anyone to get hurt," Craig said softly. "That's why I chose this spell and didn't just blow you all up in your sleep."

Andrew was sitting on the floor next to Goorzar's box-bed. The little demon was still upset by seeing her daddy making smoochy face with Craig. Sitting in her box, she sucked on the cardboard and hugged one of Andrew's thighs with her long arms. He had a feeling he might have to share her box tonight, because she wasn't showing any signs of letting go.

"Hurt comes in many guises," he said solemnly, scratching Goorzar behind the ears.

Craig looked over, not sure how to respond to that. Was Andrew angry at him? Or just indulging his flair for the dramatic? He rubbed at the back of his head anxiously. Punishment was one thing – and something he was hardly a stranger to – but Andrew having second thoughts was something worse.

"You know I never meant you to get caught up in it, yeah?" Craig walked over, but didn't get too close; Goorzar was eyeing him warily, and she had a long reach. "I know I set the spell on the whole house, but I didn't know you were going to be here – so it's not like I was targeting you too."

"I am part of the house! At least I like to think I am. And you knew I was here before you cast, so obviously I was going to be under it too."

"Yeah, but…" Craig fidgeted.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Andrew filled Craig's pause. "It doesn't matter whether I was supposed to be spelled too; you still cast it over my friends."

"Friends?" Xander grinned. When Andrew shot him a hurt look, Xander held up his hands. "Ah, just joking, of course we're…" he looked at Willow and Kennedy with a 'How-crazy-is-tonight' shrug. "…friends."

"I'm sorry," Craig muttered.

"It's okay," said Andrew, but the way he didn't look up made it obvious it wasn't.

"Can we talk outside or somethin'?" Craig persisted. Well aware that Xander, Willow and Kennedy were all still watching him aggressively, like he was going to pull another spell out of his bum to throw at them. Not likely, he only knew the one by heart anyway. "Please?"

Andrew looked up then, Craig's tone softening his resolve, but then he looked back down at the bundle clinging to him. "I shouldn't really leave Goorzie, she's still upset."

"Please?"

Andrew looked torn now.

Kennedy came over and squatted beside the box, stroking the dark sticking-up hair flat to Goorzar's head. "If you wanna go outside I'll take her." The demon had already looped her free arm around Kennedy's. "But you don't have to," she added, shooting Craig another glare.

"I don't know _what_ to do," Andrew told her softly. "Everyone is so angry."

Craig backed away a couple of steps, feeling wretched.

"It'll pass," Kennedy glanced Willow's way, "I hope."

"But _Dawn_." Andrew whispered.

"Come on, Andy, we both know Dawn isn't complaining right now," Kennedy whispered back, nudging his knee and winking. "She's been after Reece since day one."

"He's not good enough for her!"

"You don't have to tell me, but as long as he doesn't screw her around…" Kennedy shrugged.

"He won't if he knows what's good for him," Xander said.

"I guess he likes her too, right, at least he seemed to all day, and obviously he must do or else he wouldn't have…" Andrew brightened a little. "So she'll be alright." He looked up at Craig. "I'll come outside for a minute."

Craig smiled and nodded, "Cool."

Andrew gently unhooked Goorzar's arm from his leg, her grip was less now that Kennedy was fussing her too. She pulled the baby onto her lap as Andrew stood up. Goorzar made a little whimpering noise as he did so.

"What upset her in the first place?" Kennedy asked.

"Oh she went ape when she saw me and Andrew kissing," Craig explained, putting his arm loosely around Andrew's shoulders as they went through the back door.

"Is that all?" Kennedy started to laugh until Goorzar, seeing Craig's gesture, started jumping up and down on her lap, shrieking. "Ow, argh, crap!" Kennedy yelled in pain.

The back door closed behind them – blocking off Goorzar's shrieks and Kennedy's screams – and Craig pulled Andrew a little way from the house.

"I'm really sorry," he said at once. "I never meant for you to get hurt, I swear. I never meant for anyone to get hurt, but I had to find some way to get back at Buffy and the rest. I figured this spell was the most harmless way to go. Dad always liked playing pranks on Uncle Rub… Rupert, said it was to get him back for deserting him all them years ago, I figured getting my revenge in the same way was poetic…"

"Willow and Kennedy might split up over this," Andrew interrupted him. "That's not poetic, that's just cruel and senseless."

"I never knew everyone was gonna go after people who aren't their significant others, did I? The notes just say it makes people randy, not adulterous! I'll take responsibility for Dawn thinking she was ready before she was, but not for Willow and Kennedy snogging other people! The spell might have made it easier for them, but they obviously wanted to cheat in the first place or they'd have been too busy shagging each other to do it!"

"How can you say that?"

"Easily, 'cause it's the truth."

"I shouldn'tve come out here," Andrew turned to go back inside and his eye caught the newbie Slayers returning from their patrol. Naomi was with them.

"Andrew, please?" Craig grabbed his arm, turning him back around. "Stay a minute. I'm not gonna apologise for casting the spell. It's what I came here to do, and I'd do it again, but I am sorry for the trouble it's causing Ms Rosenburg and Kennedy – I like them, I really do, and I think they're a great couple."

"You can't mean that, not if you're glad you did the spell."

"I do mean it, and… and, I'll tell you what, me and you, we'll make sure this doesn't break them up, right? We'll work together to keep them together. I'll do whatever it takes."

"How?"

"I don't know," Craig admitted. "But I vow that I'll do it. Just… don't break up with me here before we've even given it a go. I'm stuck here whether I like it or not right now, and I can tell you truthfully that if you hate me, I won't like a second of it."

"I don't hate you," Andrew said quietly. "You promise you'll help make it right?"

"I'll do anything." Craig drew his finger in a cross over his heart for good measure. "They won't break up while I'm here."

"Okay," Andrew finally relented with a small smile.

"Nice one." Craig took a deep breath and blew it out noisily. "You had me really worried there."

Andrew smiled and Craig took the chance on leaning closer and giving him a quick kiss. He pulled back to gauge the reaction; Andrew's smile had grown and his eyes had gone all dreamy again – Craig loved that – so he moved back in for a longer kiss.

Five minutes later, Andrew had to lean away to yawn.

"Sorry," he murmured. "It's just really late."

"Yeah it is," Craig agreed, stifling his own yawn. "Probably time to call it a night. There's another day tomorrow."

'_Well, obviously_,' Andrew thought. Aloud, he said, "I'll walk you to the dorm."

It was pretty silly really, seeing as the dorm was only a couple of hundred yards away, but as Craig slipped their hands together, Andrew knew why he'd offered. He wished he didn't still feel so attracted to the English boy after what he'd done, but… he did, and Kennedy had pretty much given him permission to accept Craig's apology… that counted for a lot.

The girl's had gathered outside their dormitory. The giggled conversation of the hyped up slayers carrying easily to the two boys walking across the grass. They were always like this when they got home at night.

"There's post-patrol chips and yoghurt in the fridge, ladies," Andrew called over to them.

"What, nothing hot?" Rona asked.

"We've no power," Cici reminded her, more pleasantly than Andrew probably would have.

"Yeah, whaddya expect, Andy to cook ya a pizza over a camping stove?" Alison laughed.

"Do we have a camping stove?" Naomi asked, waving hi to Craig as she spoke. "Because that would perhaps come in handy."

"No idea, but I bet we have Marshmallows" Vi piped up. "We could make smores over the fire in the living room.

Miranda nodded her appreciation of that idea. "Yes, but we need a towel this time, I don't want to make Mr Giles mad again with mallow on the carpet."

"I was thinking something a lot more filling," Rona complained.

"Sorry," Andrew shrugged.

"Actually, I'm really kind of starving too," Alison rubbed her stomach, pulling a hungry face.

"I am rather peckish…" Naomi started. When everyone turned to look at her, she added, "Not only Slayers need to eat, you know? It's just; generally speaking, the rest of us can survive without devouring an entire cow every meal."

"Stop talking about cows," Miranda complained. "Now I'm craving burgers!"

"I have patties," Andrew said, "but you'll have to eat them raw!"

"Please, Andy," Cici unexpectedly turned to wheedling. "Surely there is enough fuel in the generator to fry us just a few hamburgers… each."

"Xander said it was to be used for lights only tonight," Andrew protested.

"Please?" Cici said again.

It looked suspiciously like she was batting her eyelashes at him; he wasn't sure because he'd never seen the act up close before. Suddenly there was a chorus of 'Pleases' around him and he could feel the wind from so many eyelashes going up and down on his cheeks.

He looked helplessly at Craig, who grinned at him. "They got super-strength; you might wanna keep them happy first."

"Okay," Andrew finally relented. "Come on girls, I think there are some micro-fries in the freezer too."

Craig caught his attention as he was about to head back to the house. "Hang on a minute, mate."

Andrew wandered over to him, a little confused why he was being called back. "What's wrong?"

"You forgot to say goodnight." Craig kissed him on the lips and catcalls went up behind them as the girl's watched.

"Andrew's got a boyfriend!"

He pulled away fast, embarrassed, muttering to Craig, "I hate Slayers when they've just been slaying! Goodnight." Louder, he added, "Whoever sang that isn't getting any fries!"

Craig watched Andrew head back towards the house with the girl's hovering like knats around him – all teasing him at once.

Smiling, he blew out a shaky breath, tilting his head a second towards the stars before looking back at the door for a final glimpse of Andrew.

That had been too close. How he'd dodged that bullet he didn't know. Thank God Andrew was the forgiving kind, because if he wasn't, Craig might have never forgiven himself. He should use his brain once in a while. As soon as he met the bloke he should have just forgotten about the spell, should have known it would backfire on his arse – hadn't Naomi been telling him that ever since he'd mentioned it? To think he'd come all this way and found the one thing he couldn't seem to find back home, only to chance it all on some stupid revenge.

He hadn't known though, had he? Until this morning he'd thought he would be back home by now, and Andrew had been reticent with his feelings to say the least until the spell shook the truth from him with a bang. So if it wasn't for the spell, he might never have gotten a chance with Andrew anyway.

"I'm just glad it's over," he announced to the empty garden; smiling as he scrubbed his hand over his hair a few times.

All he had to do now was make sure Ms Rosenburg and Kennedy stayed together, Dawn wasn't pregnant and Xander Harris returned to straight and then he and Andrew stood a fighting chance. Should be a doddle, providing his punishment wasn't a ticket back to London. It would be just typical of his life that now he wanted to stay he would be made to leave.

Well, whatever, he'd deal with it in the morning.

After taking one more deep breath, he let himself into the boy's dormitory. Reece was still in situ, lying on his bed with his shirt off, smoking a cigarette. Craig nodded to him, but said nothing as he started to get undressed.

"Gather I have you to thank for this," Reece drawled, pointing to the nasty looking bruise on his cheek. "What d'you do to bring them all running in here anyway?"

"None of your bloody business," Craig muttered.

"Tell me or I'll give you a matching one."

Craig chuckled; it was going to take more than Reece's threats to ruin his good mood tonight. "If you must know, I cast a lust spell over the house."

Surprisingly, Reece burst out laughing; "Really?" he shook his head in amazement. "We all knew you were up to something, but… Guess I have more to thank you for than I thought, Rayne."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm supposing it was your little spell that loosened the delectable Dawn up for me. I admit I was pleasantly surprised she gave it up so quickly, I was expecting a few more weeks of hard work first."

"Romantic," Craig sneered. "So does this mean you and Patricia have split up? The belle and the bastard of the Berkshire Hunt circuit done for good? Can't say I'm shocked, long distance relationships aren't easy, and I can't see her being prepared to wait for you. Not when there are so many tastier fish in the sea."

"Nope," Reece took a thoughtful pull on his cigarette, smiling up at the ceiling. "Pat's waiting for me back home. She wanted to come, but thank God, the silly bitch won't leave her horses."

Craig frowned, "But what about Dawn?"

"What about her?"

"Well… you shagged her, surely you like her? I know, for some unknown reason, she really fancies you."

Reece chuckled, "Of course I like her, you Pratt, and you're right she is rather sweet on me. Hard to resist that. That Cici is a bit of alright too, don't you think? Oh I suppose you wouldn't, would you? But you have to admit she's a looker, tall too, plenty of leg, wouldn't mind doing her while I'm here…"

As Reece went on, discussing his next conquest and the one after that, Craig lay back on his bed, wishing he smoked so he could calm this sudden anxiety in his chest. He wasn't as out of the woods as he thought he was. This was the card that was going to collapse and bring the fragile house down.

Dawn wasn't going to get pregnant, she was going to get duped and then dumped – and, in the eyes of Andrew, it was going to be all Craig's fault!

* * *

"It's not that I mind, really," Willow said, staring at Goorzar. "But this isn't going to become a regular occurrence, is it?"

Kennedy softly shut the bedroom door, blocking out the giggling coming from the living room. Giles would be regretting taking the downstairs bedroom tonight!

"No."

"It's just, I've heard that puppies, when they get used to sleeping in the bedroom, they refuse to give it up," Willow went on, still regarding the baby demon sitting in her box, staring back at her.

"She's not a puppy, and I said, it's just for tonight." Kennedy faced away from Willow, who was already in bed, as she got undressed. "You know she wouldn't settle downstairs without me."

The bruises Goorzar had given her during her major tantrum were a shiny blue against the background of yellow Buffy and Faith had given her. The long scratch on her cheek was stinging a little, courtesy of Goorzar's fingernail. Kennedy wondered how difficult it would be to trim them – nail scissors probably wouldn't cut it.

"I read somewhere it's not even a good idea to let babies, human ones I mean, sleep in the same room as…"

"Fine!" Kennedy irritably started to pull some heavy-duty pajamas on; Willow had never seen them before. "I'll take her back down and sleep in the kitchen with her."

She didn't know why she was in this room right now anyway. She should have made herself up a bed in the girl's dormitory, but it was so late she wasn't thinking straight.

"Baby, no," Willow jumped out of the bed, moving swiftly to stand in front of her girlfriend. "Goorzie's fine, and… and anyway, I'd rather risk her getting used to sleeping up here than you getting used to sleeping down there."

Kennedy stood there, undecided. Willow reached out to gently touch her cheek, and Kennedy sharply pulled her head away.

"Sorry," she muttered to the pain in Willow's eyes. "I'm just tired, and… sore."

"Then come to bed, baby, please?"

Eventually, Kennedy nodded, "Okay."

She backed up to the bed and got under the covers, pulling them up to her chin. As Willow slipped in beside her, she turned onto her side, facing the other way.

"Kennedy…"

"Could you put the light out."

The light clicked off and the two of them were silent in the darkness for a long time. Despite Kennedy's tiredness, she couldn't feel sleep coming.

"We should talk?" Willow said quietly.

"I don't want to… not tonight."

"In the morning?"

"Maybe." Kennedy snuggled her head deeper into her pillow. She could hear Goorzar's heavy breathing – at least one of them was getting some sleep. Suddenly she blurted out, "Did it mean anything?"

"No!" Willow's voice rang out clear in the dark room, like she'd been waiting for the question, maybe she had been. "Nothing."

"Really?"

"I have never been more _really_ of anything in my life."

"Okay," Kennedy nodded, her cheek – damp now there was darkness to hide it – sliding on the pillow. "Okay."

* * *

Buffy closed Dawn's bedroom door and walked along the landing to her own room. Normally she'd have taken the short cut through their shared bathroom, but Faith was taking a shower – being all hot and sweaty after their hour long bounce-competition, which she so would have won if Faith hadn't gotten all handsy and caused them both to bounce over the side – and Buffy wanted to give her some privacy…

Okay, that wasn't strictly true; she just didn't want an eyeful of naked Faith just before they shared a bed. It was going to be difficult enough to hold onto her resolve as it was.

Sitting at her vanity table, Buffy took her time drying her hair, listening to the water running next door. When it finally shut off, she had butterfly-stomach, but she didn't really know why.

The door to the en suite opened and steam poured into the room. "Lil' sis okay?"

"Uh huh, she's in bed. It wasn't easy, but I fought the urge to lock her in. Did you find the pajamas I put out?"

"Uh, yeah," Faith drew the word out very slowly.

Buffy swivelled her butt around on the stool and started to giggle. "Oh, Faith, you're adorable!"

"Yeah, see, that's the thing," Faith frowned down at the flannel pajamas she was wearing. "I'm not really looking to be adorable right now, B. I've done that already, up until I was, like, eleven. Now I just wanna be… hot."

"No," Buffy said sternly, turning back to her mirror and picking up her hairbrush. "If you're staying in my room until yours is free again, you are not allowed to look hot at bedtime."

"But… It's my natural state of being." Faith walked over and stole the hairbrush out of Buffy's hand. "I can't help it?"

"And you can let it run free for all of the time we are not in this room together during the hours of darkness; but when we are… you wear the pajamas." Buffy tilted her head a little so that Faith could brush her hair.

"You're giving me a hotness handicap?" Faith grumbled, taking no notice of Buffy's hair in favour of running the brush through her own a couple of times. "That's gotta be discrimination of some kind."

Noticing in the mirror, Buffy sighed; the thought of Faith making a sweet gesture like that was a little far-fetched; she should probably just be thankful for the hand-holding for the time being.

"They have elephants on them!" Faith pointed out, not feeling her concerns were getting the appropriate attention.

"I know, they're mine," Buffy reminded her, grinning.

"And the elephants are… doing ballet?" Faith was holding the shirt out from her tummy to have a proper frown at them. "Some of them are wearing tutus!"

"Again, I know." Buffy turned on the stool again and snatched her brush back. "Faith, did you bring any pajamas with you?"

"No, I didn't bring anything with me, my bag was stolen."

"Then maybe you should just be grateful I'm lending you some, huh?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't have any in my bag either. I don't own pee-jays. I can't sleep in Pee-jays…"

"Well, you're gonna," Buffy countered, standing up.

Faith stared defiantly back at her. Buffy held her stare. Faith moved one hand to the top button of the pink flannel elephant-embossed shirt.

Buffy pointed the brush at her, "Leave it, or go sleep in the bathtub."

The top button was pulled undone. Faith didn't say a word as her fingers moved down to the next button.

Buffy pursed her lips, her eyes drifting between Faith's rebellious stare and the second button.

"If you undo that…" Buffy began.

The second button popped out of its hole; Buffy's lips re-pursed, her eyes acting like she was watching a vertical tennis match. There was a wide V of bare skin showing now, the point ending between Faith's breasts. Already her fingers had moved down to the next button.

Buffy swallowed hard as the third button came undone, causing the shirt to fall open both sides. Buffy felt the room getting very warm and she took a sharp breath, digging deep for the resolve she needed.

"Still think I look adorable, B?" Faith asked, her voice low and smoky.

Buffy's eyes went back up for the first time in several seconds. "Yes," she smirked. "And I also think you're gonna look pretty stupid sleeping out in the corridor. So do them up or…"

Faith popped the fourth button and Buffy stepped forward, smartly smacking her knuckles hard with the back of the hairbrush.

"Ow!" Faith pulled her stinging hand higher up her chest.

Buffy chuckled as she walked to the other side of her bed and grabbed a pillow. "Here ya go," she threw it to Faith. "And you might wanna do you're shirt up; gets pretty chilly out there at night."

"You don't mean it?" Faith stood clutching the pillow, growing less sure of herself as Buffy went to the door and opened it wide.

"Do I look like I don't mean it?" Buffy smiled, gesturing at the door. "Go on, hurry up, I'm tired."

Faith stood there, hands squeezing the pillow tighter and tighter as she looked from Buffy's smiling, but determined, face to the open door and dark corridor beyond.

"Fine!" She scowled, throwing the pillow at Buffy with some force. She swiftly did her buttons back up, all but the very top one, which had been kinda choking her in the first place. "There, better?"

Buffy caught the pillow, laughing at her victory. "No, not better, just for the best." She closed her door again gently before chucking Faith's pillow back in place on the bed.

"From whose point of view?" Faith asked, perching her ass on the edge of the vanity table, she watched as Buffy brushed her hair through, like, fifty times or something.

When Buffy just smirked at her, she asked, "We don't actually have to wait until we're properly together before we beya know_, properly together_, do we?" Faith asked, looking worried.

Buffy thought about that, her eyes doing a quick Faith-inventory. God, she even made the elephant pajamas sexy when she was all pouty like that!

Buffy groaned a little, before taking a big, sensible breath, "Yes it does. I'm not saying it'll be the easiest thing in the world, but we should wait, I think, don't you?"

Faith shook her head. "Not really."

"Faith, you're supposed to be making stuff up to me!" Buffy came to set her hair brush down next to Faith's ass. While she was there, she took both of her hands in hers and bent her head to look into Faith's downward tilting eyes.

"_That's_ why I need time, remember? So if you really think you're getting more than a kiss goodnight from me until you at least _start_ that making up – which you don't have time for right now – then you seriously need to think again."

Buffy reluctantly let go of Faith's hands and went about finishing her nightly rituals: checking her stake was under her pillow, setting her alarm clock and pulling back the bed covers.

In the time it took to do all that, Faith was motionless and speechless, finally she asked, "What about last night?"

"Last night was a welcome home gift… to both of us," Buffy smiled, getting into bed

"Yeah, I really don't think this 'time' thing is gonna be easy, ya know?" A chuckled curled around Faith's words.

"Probably not, but whatcha gonna do?"

The brightness in Buffy's voice came from the effort it was taking not to pull her pajamas off and invite Faith to do the same.

Faith was right, this 'time' thing was getting harder every second, but Buffy really believed it was necessary. She wanted to take things slow; she wanted to build something worth lasting. If Faith didn't feel the same – and Buffy wasn't saying she didn't, but after the last week she wasn't going to assume anything – if Faith was only interested in the one thing, then it was better to find out sooner rather than later.

Faith grumbled something inaudible from the other side of the room.

"Are you coming to get your goodnight kiss or not," Buffy called to her. "Cause it's really late and any second now I'm gonna fall asleep whether I want to or not, and if you try and kiss me then…"

She left the threat hanging and Faith chuckled as she got to her feet, straightened her dancing elephant jammies and walked around to climb in the other side of the bed.

"Really, no sex?" Faith checked one last time with a small grin.

"Really," Buffy grinned back.

"Damn," Faith muttered.

Buffy giggled, moving under the covers until she was closer to Faith.

She felt more self-conscious laying next to Faith than she had the night before, not that she'd really had time to feel anything last night before things had turned heavy. All that she remembered thinking before she kissed Faith then was wanting to kiss Faith, and that had made things run pretty smoothly.

Buffy didn't have to look far to find that feeling again and she leaned forward, pushing up on her elbow to bring their faces closer. Faith was ready and eagerly met her lips.

It wasn't a quick goodnight kiss by any means, far from a sweet peck on the lips, although it _was_ sweet… As Faith's tongue dipped into her mouth, Buffy's breath caught and she pushed her own up to meet it, feeling the connection all the way down to her toes.

'_Oh God,'_ she thought from deep within her brain. '_Time better heal damn fast!'_

Resolutely, she pulled away after another minute, although her hand stayed caressing Faith's cheek for a while longer. "I'm really glad you're home," she whispered.

Faith looked a little starry-eyed. "Can't say I'm sorry to be home; that was some 'goodnight'."

Buffy's smile was deliberately demure, "Yeah, well… sweet dreams."

She leaned over once more to give Faith a quick kiss on the cheek, before leaning back the other way to turn off her bedside light and curl up on her side of the bed.

"Nighty-night, B."

Darkness filled the room right to the corners, but Buffy could hear Faith moving around, ruffling her pillows. She could feel the covers shift over her as Faith shifted under them.

Eventually there was silence apart from Faith's even breathing. Buffy smooshed her face into her pillow, embarrassed by the size of her smile even though no one could see it.

Rolling silently over to face Faith a little later, Buffy watched her sleeping in the faint light of the full moon coming through her curtains, the smile never slipping from her face, until finally, sleep claimed her too.

* * *

So there it is done. Feedback is, as always, welcome, so let me know what you think.

Life is a big ball of hectic at the moment, with many tangled threads, and so I'll be taking a short break from posting. Sorry about that, but hey at least I finished the episode first right? I'll post the teaser of the next episode **House Party** on March 1st. Sooner if possible, but definitely by then.


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